To The End
by ThatMormonGirl
Summary: Sam Harper was your normal Georgia girl, until the dead started walking. Now along with her new friend Glenn she's on a mission to get back home to her family before it's too late and maybe right her wrongs in this new, dangerous world.
1. Mad World

"The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you freed." -Buddha

~Sam~

I felt my heart pounding as I saw it, just about ten feet in front of me. The Barricade. My only way out of this Hell and back to my family was that dammed wall. I was terrified, the second I went through there I could be shot, or worse, get bit and turn into one of them.

The Walkers.

But I thought of my mom and dad, terrified that I was dead. I had to find them, make sure they were okay so we could all just hide in the shop until this madness was over. I thought of Jason and Simon, home with mom and dad, probably scared out of their minds about me. Jason was probably blaming himself for not going with his little sister to their first show. I had to make it out, tell them I was okay, no matter what. I swallowed my fear and silently rolled Black Widow, my bike, onto the pavement, being careful the soldiers didn't hear me. I heard the blood rushing in my ears as I saw my way out, a piece of wood leaned against a car that I could use for a ramp. I revved up Black Widow's new customized engine, altered so that it ran almost silently. I finally released the brake and tore down the pavement, praying that the board would hold the weight, it was my only hope.

I saw the soldiers, but I had my own family to think about as I raced up the ramp, over the car and soared through the air. As I landed my heart caught in my throat when I realized that I was free. After days in that miserable Hell hole I was free. I raced as fast as Black Widow would carry me as the soldiers debated going after me. Even if they did, they would never catch up. My dad and I had built Black Widow from scratch and I knew there were some not-so-legal add ons in her engine to make sure nothing could catch me. I felt like I was going to cry as I felt the sunlight beating down on me.

I was finally going home.

Savannah had been on lock down since the outbreak of the virus; the virus that was causing the dead to get up and start walking around. It had started there, I think. All I knew was that one moment we were getting investors for the shop left and right, and the next second people were screaming and crying that the world was ending and I was barricaded in the city. Now, in my personal opinion, what the sane people were doing to each other was leagues more disturbing then what the dead ones were doing. All you need is a little chaos for people to start killing each other over money that doesn't even matter anymore. People were looting, murdering, raping, it was like the dark ages had taken hold of Savannah.

I was one of the lucky ones. I "borrowed" some supplies from a local hunting store, the ones my dad had taught me how to use, and had hidden in a convenience store. I'd already had to use my Desert Eagle more than I would have liked, and never once on a Walker. But I did what I had to do to survive and see my family again.

As I continued down the deserted highway I felt the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. Don't get me wrong, I usually do things on my own, but it would be nice to have someone watching my back. I continued on and was disturbed at how empty it was. Jesus, how long had this been going on? I felt like this had to be a dream, everything was abandoned, cars were left in the street, building were looted and destroyed. This couldn't be Georgia; this all had to be a bad dream or something. Weren't the walls supposed to keep this in Savannah?

I finally stopped to take a look in a small pharmacy. I grabbed my Machete and tucked my desert Eagle into the front of my jeans, just in case. I carefully stepped inside and quickly scouted the area for Walkers. Empty, just like this whole dammed state. I grabbed some water and energy bars and stuffed them into my backpack and had just hopped back onto Black Widow when I heard a scream. I raced towards the noise as fast as B.W. would carry me.

I finally saw the source of the noise, a young guy, probably my age, maybe a year or two younger, was trapped on the roof of a car with Walkers closing in fast.

I paused, biting my lip. What if I saved this kid and then he shoved me off my bike to the Walkers? What if he killed me in the middle of the night? I had left dozens of people to die in Savannah, people who, I was ashamed to admit, really needed my help.

And I had abandoned them to die.

But there was something about this kid, the way his huge eyes were searching for a way out of the mess he'd gotten himself into. He reminded me of someone I had known back in Macon, and I knew I was his only hope. Something just clicked inside me and I knew that, for whatever reason, I just couldn't leave this kid to die here. I sped over and slammed on the breaks at the base of the car he was stuck on and motioned for him to get on. A smaller Walker, probably a kid, was about to lunge. I thought of my family and whipped out my gun, pulling the trigger and shooting it right between the eyes as the guy finally got on and latched onto me. I passed the gun back to him and raced off. I felt like my heart was going to explode as I heard him fire shots at some of the Walkers behind us. I was too terrified to stop for anything as we continued to race down the abandoned highway, dodging cars and spare Walkers as we went.

Finally I saw what looked like an abandoned drug store with a metal caging that could be locked in front of the doors. It was getting dark and I knew we'd need somewhere to stay the night. I pulled Black Widow over outside the store and put out the brake. The guy slipped his arms from my waist as we both dismounted.

"Jesus sir, you really saved my ass back there." I smiled as I realized that with Jason's leather jacket and my hair tucked up into my helmet, this kid thought I was a boy. I slipped my helmet off and grinned at him as my dark brown hair fell out and his face turned bright red.

"You're welcome, but don't call me sir." I said simply. "Name's Sam." I said, holding my helmet under my arm and extending my free hand.

"G-Glenn." He said, shaking my hand. "So, are we sleeping here tonight?" I sighed and looked at the building.

"Safest thing I've seen so far. Figured it was worth a shot. Besides, I haven't seen a Walker for miles." I turned to him. "That is, if you're not going to kill me in the middle of the night or something." I stared him down. In Savannah this was a common thing. I'd seen friends slit each other's throats in the night for a candy bar. Glenn shook his head violently.

"After you saved me? I would never!" I sighed and brushed my hair back.

"Can't be too careful." I murmured. As we walked into the store I did a sweep for Walkers or survivors, but the place was a ghost town. I sighed as Glenn locked the steel grating and shut the front doors. The place was barricaded already, and there was a bloody cot in the office. I swallowed nervously and just sort of collapsed onto the floor as Glenn walked over to me.

"Sam what's-" He saw the bedding. "Oh."

"What's been going on out here?" I asked quietly. Glenn looked shocked.

"Do you not know?"

"Only what I heard before the media blackout. I've been trapped in Savannah for three days."

"Jesus Christ, what's Savannah like?" Glenn asked. I flashed back to the blood, the terror and murder and all of the pure evil I'd seen and just quietly shook my head.

"You don't want to know." I whispered. Glenn took this as his hint to stop asking and told me he'd find us somewhere to sleep. I shook the sad thoughts from my head and scavenged around the store to find something useful. I grabbed a few energy bars and some warm sodas from a small cooler. I walked over to Glenn, who'd set up a small bed out of blankets and some coats. I tossed him a soda and energy bar.

"I'll take the first watch." I said quietly. "You've had a rough day from what I can tell." Glenn smiled weakly at my joke. I walked over with my gun to a small peephole we'd made when we were barricading to make sure we could see.

It hadn't been more than two minutes before I heard Glenn come and sit down by me. "So, where'd you get that sick bike? And how is it so quiet?"

"My dad and I built it, and when all this started happening I made some quick adjustments to make it run more quietly."

"You built that?" Glenn exclaimed. I shushed him, but couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm.

"With a lot of help, yes. My dad owns a bike shop in Macon. I was at our first show in Savannah when the world came to a screeching halt."

"You're from Macon? I thought I recognized you! I'm from Macon too."

"Really?" I looked at Glenn; I'd thought he'd looked familiar. "Don't you work at the pizza place?"

"Yep, delivery boy." He answered. I grinned.

"I knew I remembered you. My brothers order pizza from you all the time…" I paused. "Well, they did." I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Glenn looking at me.

"They will again, this has to end sometime." I sighed and patted Glenn's hand awkwardly. He was so hopeful. "Look, I'm on my way to Macon, I assume you're going to try and find your family, maybe we should stick together. It's safer that way." I nodded and there was a long silence before Glenn spoke again.

"It's Harper, right? Sam Harper?" I smiled.

"Yeah."

"Your dad fixed my car for me one time, it broke down in your guys' driveway during a run and he just got under the hood and fixed it in about thirty seconds. He didn't even charge me."

"I remember that." I admitted. All my little brother was worried about was that his pizza would be cold." I chuckled, remembering Simon whining about cold pizza while Glenn's car was stuck in our driveway. I smiled; Glenn had successfully taken my mind off the horrors of Savannah, at least for a little while as we chuckled quietly about life in Macon.

But as usual, it couldn't last. A Walker had heard us and was walking over to investigate the noise. I clamped my hand over Glenn's mouth and motioned for him to be quiet. A bead of sweat rolled down my face as the Walker drug itself over to the window and started to scrape against the barricade. I picked up my machete and was ready to slice off whatever part of it came closest to the window.

"Sam, it'll just scream and bring more." Glenn warned, leaning over and whispering in my ear. I swallowed nervously, he was right. Then, slowly but surely the Walker stuck its hand into the peephole. I leaned back slowly, making sure I stayed silent as I heard it groaning outside. Just when I was sure it was going to grab me a gunshot went off in the distance and the Walker pulled its hand away to follow the noise. I willed my heartbeat to slow down as I fell back onto what I thought was the floor only to land on something soft. I looked up to see Glenn smiling nervously at me. I blushed and pulled myself back up.

"That was a little too close." I whispered.

"No kidding, whoever shot that gun saved our asses."

"Too bad it'll kill their own." I said. I turned and looked at Glenn. "So, you've been out here longer than I have, how much do you know about the Walkers?" He sighed and scratched the back of his head.

"Well, if you get bitten or scratched, you're fucked. Loud noises attract them, you almost never see just one, but the one saving grace is that they're usually pretty slow with the whole decomposition thing and all. A shot to the head with usually do the trick, especially with that machete. Other than that, I'm as in the dark as you are."

"Good to know."

"What did you hear before the media blackout?"

"Not much, only that if you see a Walker to report it to the nearest authorities and to barricade your homes." Glenn and I both chuckled at how naïve that sounded.

"What authorities?" Glenn joked sadly.

"Especially when they're half the reason you have to barricade your homes." We were both quiet for a long time before Glenn spoke again.

"Look, after we find our families we should try heading to Atlanta. I hear there are a lot of groups of survivors up there."

"There are survivors in Savannah too, and they're just the ones who killed everyone else." I snapped. He was a little taken back at the hate in my voice. "No groups. They just take what they want and kill everyone they think could be a threat."

"Sam, what happened in Savannah?" Glenn asked. I was silent, Savannah was something I just wanted to bury in my mind for the rest of my life. The faces screaming, the blood, everyone who needed me…"

"You should get some sleep." I said after a long time. "We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

"Sam, you should be the one to sleep if you have to drive that bike-"

"I don't sleep." I said simply. Glenn looked at me for a while.

"Have you not slept since…" He searched for the words, "this whole mess started?"

"No."

"Sam, please sleep, I'll take the watch. You can trust me." I looked over to him, his pleading brown eyes, begging me to believe him.

"The last time I heard those words I was almost killed. Now sleep." I snapped. He finally gave up and crawled over to the homemade bed and laid down.

"Goodnight Sam." He whispered. I blushed.

"Goodnight Glenn."

Things were quiet for the rest of the night. I never even saw another Walker, which was incredible. The next thing I knew the sun was rising and Glenn was begging me to sleep and let him take the watch. I shook my head.

"We have to keep moving. I have to find my family."

"Sam, you're not going to ever find them if you fall asleep and the bike crashes. Please." I sighed and took out the key I wore around my neck. It was one of the keys to our shop back home. I clutched it, hoping my parents, for whatever reason, would know I was alive and coming to them. "Sam-"

"Alright." I said, finally giving up. "I'll sleep, here." I handed Glenn my machete, and after some brief hesitation, pulled my gun out of the front of my jeans and handed that to him too. I crawled over to the small makeshift bed and collapsed. It was still warm from Glenn, and I fell into a much needed sleep.

_The first thing I felt was the warmth of the fire outside, then I heard their voices, pleading, begging me to help them as the gunfire crept closer and closer. "Sam! Sam please help us! Open the door!"_

"_Sam, please Jesus, you have to let us inside!"_

"_Don't let me die, please Sam! I don't want to die!"_

"_They're getting closer Sam, they have guns, they'll kill us all!"_

"_I don't want to die!" _

"_Sam!"_

"_Sam!"_

"_Sam!"_

"Sam!" I opened my eyes to see Glenn looking at me, concern written all over his face. I wiped away the tears when I realized it had just been a memory, and now I was safe in the store, away from that horrible place. I shakily stood and grabbed my bag, fishing out two energy bars and tossing one to Glenn and ate the other as he continued to stare.

"Did I scream?" I finally asked.

"No." He said.

"Good."

"But you were crying and just saying 'I'm sorry' over and over." He was waiting for me to answer, but I just stood up and slipped on my jacket and my backpack, grabbing my helmet from the door.

"Let's go." I said quietly.

We were both silent as we sped down towards Macon. As we got to the city limits there were knots in my stomach, would my family still be here? What if they were Walkers? Could I kill my own family? No, they would be alive, they were tough. They would just lock themselves in the shop and they would be okay.

They had to be.


	2. Life and Death

"Trust no one, for even your shadow abandons you in the dark." –Bob Marley

As Glenn and I quietly entered the city limits I bit my lip. There were Walkers everywhere. "Sam maybe we should-" But I ignored him and tried to drive around them, but it was like trying to drive through a pack of cattle. Then one of them must have figured out we were alive because they started to limp towards us. I had to turn around and race back outside the city before they got to us. When we had gotten far enough away I finally stopped and threw my helmet to the ground.

"God dammit!" I cursed. "How in the Hell are we supposed to get through them?" I was furious. I was so close to my family yet so far. That whole damn town was just crawling with Walkers. I was more worried for them than ever.

"Sam, you and I know this city. We can maybe cut through stores, rooftops, places they can't get in."

"Or we could find a car." I suggested. "I love B.W., but she can't protect us like a car can."

"Cars are too loud. And it wasn't the bike that gave us away it was our scent; they can smell that we're not dead."

"I'm not rolling around in zombie guts." I said simply. I let out a long sigh. "Let's try the rooftops."

"Alright, and no guns. If we attract a horde in there we're in a world of hurt." I sighed and pulled out my gun, showing Glenn that I was tucking it inside my backpack with the safety on.

"Let's go, before it gets dark." I suggested. I grabbed the keys to Black Widow to make sure no one would steal her, putting them in my pocket for safe keeping as Glenn and I crept to the city limits. I saw about four Walkers and slowly pulled out my machete.

"Sam, wait-" But I had already sliced the first ones head in half before he could speak. I crept up behind the next one and lobbed off its head. I stabbed the third through the back of his skull and when the fourth turned around to see what was going on I slashed his head in half. I felt a shiver creep up my spine as I recognized one of the Walkers as my family's mailman.

"Don't look at the faces, they're not who you remember anymore." Glenn said as he walked up behind me. "We better keep moving." I followed behind him as we got to a fire escape and climbed up as slowly as possible. Luckily all the windows were shut and the Walkers inside the building couldn't get to us. Glenn got to the roof first and helped me up. We walked to the edge of the building and I felt my heart drop. My families shop looked like it was a million miles away, and the ground was spotted red like blood with Walkers. Glenn felt as disheartened as I did I was sure.

"Glenn, where's your family? Maybe they're closer-"

"My family's in Atlanta." He said simply. I remembered me snapping at him for wanting to go to Atlanta. But from what I'd heard before the media blackout it was almost as bad as Savannah.

"Then why did you come back?" I asked.

"I knew there was no way I'd get to Atlanta on foot, I came back for my car. Should make things a lot easier."

"Where's your car?"

"My house, right there." He pointed to a spot halfway between us and my family's shop.

"Perfect, we can pick up your car, drive to the shop, and then drive out of here."

"Well, except that it's out of gas."

"Shit."

"I was trying to siphon some from that car I was stranded on when the Walkers found me." I sighed. Looked like we were on for getting to the shop and then Glenn's car. Then I felt a cold realization hit me.

"How many people does your car hold?" I asked. He looked at the ground. "Glenn?"

"Four, five at the absolute most." I felt so defeated. If my entire family [i]was[/i] still alive, we might not be able to get them all out. We don't have any cars at the shop, we build bikes, which aren't very useful in a thicket of Walkers like this. "That's why I didn't tell you." He said quietly.

"We'll figure it out if we can get to the shop. We have gas there I'm sure."

"Unless it's been looted." Glenn said quietly.

"Well, it's better than sitting here waiting to die. Now how do we get there?"

"Staying on the rooftops is the safest bet," He looked back at me. "I hope you can jump pretty far." He said after a long pause.

"We'll find out." I said quietly. "Let's go." We walked to the edge of this rooftop and saw it was only a three foot drop down to the next one, easy enough. As we continued we saw the next roof would be a bit of a challenge. It was six feet up. "Give me a boost and I'll pull you up." I said. He nodded and helped me grab the ledge and I pulled myself up. I looked up to see six Walkers coming towards me.

"Sam?"

"Hold on Glenn!" I said as I ran at them, slicing and hacking as quietly as I could. But one swiped at me and I fell back to keep him from getting killed. He was about to strike again when I shoved my machete through his face. He dropped on top of me and I leapt up, barely pulling my knife out of his head before the next Walker lunged, but I managed to rip it out and slice the last one in the face just in time.

I reached down and offered Glenn my hand, helping him up. He saw the Walker and whistled. "Definitely a good idea to keep you around." He said smiling. But his smile dropped when he turned to me.

"What?" I asked. He grabbed my sweatshirt and lifted it up, that's when I saw the blood. But the look on his face was one of relief.

"It's theirs." He promised. I looked at my stomach and was relieved to see that there were no bites or scratches.

"Thank God." I said. We walked over to the edge of the roof and the fear came back. There was a good six foot gap between them and a five story drop to the street below.

"Well, I guess we're finding a way around-" But I was already getting a running start and I pushed off the building. I felt like I was flying through the air as I sailed between the rooftops. Way around my ass. I landed rolling like how I saw in the movies and stood up, smiling at Glenn. He just shook his head. "You've really got to stop doing that." He said.

"Just jump." I teased. He went back and got a running start like I had, but he pushed off too early and tripped. Instinct kicked in and I reached out and grabbed his hands out of the air as he hit the side of the building with a loud smack.

"Owww." He moaned. I dug my feet into the ground and pulled him up. It took a while, and some climbing on his part, but I finally gave one last pulled and he landed on top of me. We both were breathing heavily, but then Glenn realized where he was and turned bright red, jumping up and apologizing and I couldn't help but smile. He helped me to my feet as we walked over to the edge of this roof.

"Are you okay? It sounds like you hit that wall pretty hard."

"I'm fine." He promised. We continued to leap from roof to roof and my shop was looking within reach. When we were as close as the rooftops cod take us I took in a sharp breath. The shop was surrounded by Walkers and the ground was the only way over there. I sat down in defeat.

Now what?

Glenn and I scanned everywhere around the shop until I saw it. "Glenn, over there." I pointed to a car across the street from us.

"So?" He asked.

"If we break that glass the alarm will go off, the noise might be enough of a distraction for us to get over there." We looked around for something to break the glass with, finally Glenn found a few bricks.

"You didn't play softball by chance, did you?" He asked.

"Nope." I admitted.

"Well, then let's just hope we're both good shots." He said. We took aim and let the bricks fly. I hit the hood of the car, but Glenn smashed in the windshield and the alarm went off. The Walkers crawled over immediately as we made our way down a fire escape. I waited to drop down until all of them were over there and then booked it to the shop, Glenn right behind me.

I grabbed my keys and hastily unlocked the door and shoved it open without much trouble. We stumbled inside and shut the door, locking it behind us. I smiled. We made it.

I spun around to see my house. It was empty and all the lights were off, but maybe they were just hiding. "Mom? Dad? Simon? Jason?" I called out their names, but there was nothing. "Guys?" I felt like my stomach had turned to lead as I ran up the stairs. I threw open the door to Jason and Simon's room, empty; same with mine. I felt like time itself had stopped as I walked to my parents room. "Mom? Dad?" I slowly opened the door and flipped on the light. My heart stopped.

They were dead.

My eyes began to fill up with tears. This couldn't be happening, I had been coming here to save them, I had to save them. I managed to stumble over to the bed and looked at them. They'd been dead for a while and there was an empty pill case next to the bed. My legs gave out from under me as I stared, frozen. I think Glenn might have said something, but I couldn't hear him. They were both clutching something, I somehow managed to make myself grab it from them. I unfolded it to see a photo of Jason, Simon and I from when we were little. On the back there was writing:

_Sam,_

_We tried to wait for you, but we just couldn't wait any longer. Jason and Simon heard that there were survivors in Atlanta and went there to find you, but we just couldn't keep going. We've fought long enough Sam. Remember that we love you, we always have and we always will. Please don't cry for us, we'll all be together again someday. We love you._

I crumpled to the floor, tears streaming down my face as I clung to my mother's hand. This couldn't be happening. If I could have been here they would still be alive. We could have gotten through this together. I felt an arm on my shoulder and turned and clutched Glenn to me, crying into his shoulder. He just held me as I cried for what felt like an eternity. Finally I was able to choke back my tears and wiped them from my face.

"Sam, I'm so sorry." Glenn whispered. I just shook my head and shakily stood.

"Can we bury them?" I asked.

"Probably not." He admitted. I sighed and settled for pulling the blanket over their faces. It would have to do until I could come back and give them a proper burial.

"I have to find my brothers," I looked at my parents again. "I owe them that much. And then we can find your family too."

"Alright." He said simply. "We should stay here tonight though and head out in the morning, it's already getting dark."

I simply nodded. "We'll sleep in Jason and Simon's room." I walked out of my parent's room behind Glenn looking at them one last time before turning off the light and locking the door. I led Glenn to Jason and Simon's room and we set down our things. "I don't think we have any hot water left, but it should still be running if you want to wash up." I offered.

"Thanks." He said quietly. He was about to walk out when he turned back to me. "Sam."

"Yes?"

"We'll find your brothers."

"I hope so." I said simply. I slipped off my jacket and crawled under the covers of Simon's bed and eventually fell into a restless sleep.

_I ran as fast as I could into the bank and slammed the safe shut. We had rigged the inside so that it was now the only place you could open it from. It just seemed safer that way. I thought it was ironic that we would burn the money inside the safe to stay warm at night, it was useless now. The only currencies were sex, blood, and weapons. The first was pretty much out for me and the other two women in our group for obvious reasons, we didn't feel like dying and we had no weapons. But they did. That's why I was hiding from them. I listened as the others ran up to me and started to bang on the safe door._

"_Sam! Let us in!" _

"_Jesus, they set the place on fire, we have to go now!"_

"_We'll be fine, the safe is fireproof, right Sam? Now let us in!" I crawled away from the door. "Sam it's us! Let us in!" They were getting angry now, pounding on the door._

"_Why isn't she opening the safe?"_

"_Fucking coward! Open the damn door!" I could tell they were furious as I crawled further and further back into the safe and hugged my knees to my chest, shaking from head to toe. I could feel the warmth of the fire outside,_ _then I heard their voices, pleading, begging me to help them as the gunfire crept closer and closer…_

I sat up covered in a thin layer of sweat. It took me a second to realize where I was. I looked over to see Glenn sitting by the window, watching. "More bad dreams?" He asked, not turning to look at me.

"You could say that." I muttered. "I can take the watch now."

"We don't really need to take watch, this place is reinforced with steel everywhere I've looked, and the Walkers set off another car alarm, so they're down the street having fun with that."

"Then why are you up?" I asked. He turned and looked at me.

"I figured that we don't want you screaming in your sleep, figured if it got too bad I could wake you up."

"Thanks." I said.

"What was it about?"

"Huh?"

"Your nightmare, what was it about?" I remembered them screaming.

"Savannah." I said quietly.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked quietly.

"No." He just nodded and looked back out the window. We were both quiet for a long time before Glenn spoke.

"Come 'ere for a second." He said finally. I crawled out of bed and slid over to where he was and looked out the window at the giant full moon, shining brilliantly in the sky as the stars glittered around it. "That's where your parents are now Sam." He said pointing to the stars. "It's better up there for them." I felt a small smile spread across my face.

"You're right." I whispered. Glenn turned around and looked at me.

"Thank you, for saving me, twice now." He said, chuckling. "I don't know how I'll ever repay you."

"Well, if I ever get trapped on the roof of a car or fall off the edge of a building, it'll be your time to shine." I teased.

"Very funny. That was a long jump."

"It was six feet." We both chuckled as we sat in the moonlight. And for the first time in a long time I felt happy. I felt like I did before everyone started killing each other. It was like life was back to normal again, sitting there with Glenn. And I found I couldn't wipe my smile off my face.

But then I remembered my parents, dead in the other room. But I wouldn't give up. I may have lost them, but Jason and Simon were still out there,

and I had to save them.


	3. Vultures

"Saints are sinners who kept on going." -_Robert Louis Stevenson_

I woke up the next morning trying to remember where I was. Then I remembered, my parents were dead in the other room, but my brothers were still out there. I sat up and looked down to see Glenn asleep on the floor. I remembered sitting there with him and resting my head on his shoulder, I must have fallen asleep not long after. He was out like a light. I stood up and decided to use the water, if it was still running, and change. I hadn't changed since Savannah and I could tell.

I grabbed some clean clothes from the dresser in my room and walked into the bathroom. I flipped on the water and embraced the cold as it hit me. It was already almost a hundred degrees out and humid, so the cold was more than welcome. I took my time, washing my hair three times; I had no idea when I'd be able to shower again, and stepped out. I toweled off and changed, walking back to see if Glenn had woken up yet. He was still sound asleep. I smiled and tiptoed over to the window and gently pulled back the curtain. The Walkers had more or less cleared out, setting off a relay of car alarms down the street to the center of town. I went back into my room and grabbed my backpack, shoving as many clothes inside as I could. I looked at my shoes, they'd hold out for another six months easy, even with all this walking, but just in case I grabbed another pair. I also grabbed the photo my parents had been holding to remember why I had to keep going. When everything was packed up I just stood there for a moment.

What if I didn't find my brothers? What if Jason and Simon were already Walkers? Could I kill them? I shook the thoughts from my head and walked back into my parent's room and sat on the edge of their bed. With the sheets pulled over their faces it looked like they were just taking a nice little nap or something.

"Hey Mom, Hi Dad. Um, I'm home, but I guess I didn't make it in time, huh? I tried; I tried to get here before things got really bad, but… Savannah, you have no idea what it was like there. People killing each other for no reason other than the fact that they could. It was sick. But it's okay, because I made it out, and I'm here now. I promised I would come home, didn't I?" I smiled and pulled the sheets back from their faces and took their hands and pulled off their wedding bands. Should a looter come in here I didn't want them to take it. "I'm going to hold on to these for you guys, so that I'll always remember you, okay?" I unclipped my necklace and slid the rings so they hung on the chain with the key to the shop. Then I pulled the sheet back over them. "I have to go now, I have to find Simon and Jason and I have to help Glenn find his family. You guys remember him, he was the guy who delivered pizza to our house that one time and his car broke down in the driveway and dad fixed it. He's a great kid and I'm lucky I found him." I paused and touched the part of the sheet that I knew my mom's head was under. "I'll always love you guys, even though I have to leave you now and I don't get to bury you, I still love you, and I will to the end." I choked back my tears as I stood and turned to see Glenn standing in the doorway.

"Sorry, but we should probably go before the Walkers come back."

"Yeah." I agreed quietly. "Let's get that gas."

We walked in silence down to where the shop was, as I opened the door Glenn finally spoke. "That was beautiful, what you told your parents back there, about loving them to the end."

"Thank you."

"That's kind of an odd thing to say though, considering…all this."

"It's a family saying, my grandpa was an atheist so whenever we'd say something about loving someone forever he'd say 'you can only love people to the end, then your love goes back to the rest of the world where people need it most.' We actually kind of started saying it to remember him after he died, and we just never stopped." "Huh." Was all Glenn said as I unlocked the door to the shop. I pulled out the flashlight I'd tucked into my backpack and turned it on as we walked inside.

The shop was pitch black, it was impossible to see anything unless the flashlight was shining directly on it. I really hoped that no Walkers were in here, or we were in some serious trouble. But our luck held out as I shined the light on three gas cans. Glenn's face lit up like a Christmas tree when he shook them and found that all three were full. He stood up and hugged me.

"Now we can get to Atlanta for sure!" He said, hugging me again. I was a little stunned at first, but then hugged him back. "Sam, I'm glad you stopped." He whispered. I blushed and pulled back to see him staring at me. I felt my heart speed up as we started to lean towards each other, but then there was a loud thud.

"What the fuck was that?" I snapped, spinning around to where the noise came from. I saw a dent in the garage door from the outside, followed by another loud thud as the door dented even more.

"Walkers." Glenn said simply.

"No doubt about it." I agreed. "Must have gotten tired of playing with the cars." I sighed. "We better get out of here."

We went up to the attic and looked out the small window, most of the Walkers were still playing with the cars, but there were a good ten or eleven that were trying to break in the garage door.

"What are we going to do?" I asked.

"Hey, don't look at me, this is your shop, is there a back way out?"

"Not really." I admitted. "The telephone lines are out; if we got to the roof we might be able to use them like a zip line."

"Worth a shot." Glenn said, but I could tell he was nervous. I squeezed his hand.

"We're going to be fine. We're going to get to Atlanta and find your family."

"And your brothers."

"And my brothers, now let's go." We packed up all out stuff and I gave Glenn a backpack to carry the gas in as we climbed out the small window and onto the roof. The power lines went all the way to the roof of a nearby apartment complex, but it was at least four feet from my roof.

"I'll go first." Glenn volunteered.

"No way-"

"Sam, you've saved my life twice now, I need to start paying that back." He took a deep breath and jumped, grabbing the power line and climbing to the pole a few feet away. He grabbed it and slipped off his jacket, slipping it over the line.

"Please be careful." I said. He smiled back at me.

"I will! Besides, I've always wanted to do this." He admitted. I chuckled as he pushed off and slid down to the building without a hitch, letting go and rolling onto the rooftop. "Woo! Sam you've got to try this!" I rolled my eyes and followed suit, slipping Jason's jacket over the line and pushing off. I couldn't help but smile, until I heard the tearing noise.

I looked up just as Jason's jacket ripped and I went falling through the air. "SAM!" I heard Glenn screaming my name as my life flashed before my eyes and I fell through the air. But then out of nowhere I stopped and smashed into the wall of the building. I looked up and saw Glenn hanging onto my wrist for dear life. I pushed off the wall and gave him my other hand, helping him pull me by walking up the wall the best I could. Finally he pulled me on top of him and I hugged him.

"Thank you." I whispered, clutching him to me.

"One down, one to go." He joked, pulling me to my feet. "My house is about six roofs down; I think we can do this."

"Especially considering that I'm an expert roof jumper now." I teased. We took off and made it to Glenn's house without an issue and I kicked in a window, taking down the few Walkers that had gotten inside as we raced to the front door. Glenn grabbed the keys and looked at me.

"I know you'll have my back out there."

"Just get gas in that car as fast as you can." I advised. He continued to stand there for a moment and then looked back at me.

"Ready?"

"Ready." He threw open the door and I just started hacking away, clearing a path to the gas tank as Glenn filled the car as fast as he could. I felt my heart pounding as the Walkers just kept coming and coming. Finally Glenn slammed the tank shut and I gave him a path to the driver's door. Then I rolled over the hood and slipped in the passenger's door. The Walkers were starting to mob around us as he kept trying to start the car.

"It won't start!" He screamed. I pulled my gun out and whacked the dashboard and the car roared to life. "How did you-"

"DRIVE!" I screamed. Glenn floured it as we mowed down Walkers left and right as we raced out of the city. When we got to where I had parked Black Widow I felt my eyes tear up.

"We made it." He whispered.

"Next stop, Atlanta!" I cheered. "If we just stay on I-75 North we can be there in an hour and a half."

"Sounds good." He agreed. I opened the door and Glenn stared at me. "What are you doing?" He asked.

"Getting on my bike, I'll be right next to you the whole way, I'm not leaving her here." I paused. "It's the only family I have until we find Jason and Simon." I whispered. That bike was like family to me. My dad and I had built her from scratch; she was all I had left of him.

"Alright, but you stay close. And if we hit a thicket of Walkers you're getting in the car." He said.

"Deal." I picked up my helmet and slipped it on as we raced towards Atlanta.

The miles blazed by and we made it in less than an hour since Glenn and I were racing each other the whole time.

I won of course.

As we pulled up to Atlanta the city looked deserted as the houses we had passed. We both slowed down as we rode through the empty streets. Glenn rolled down his window.

"Where is everyone?" He asked. I shrugged and sighed as we came up to a road block. We tried to drive around it, but scattered cars and tanks made that impossible, we drove around for twenty minutes trying to find another way. The only other road lead to a forest, so eventually just would up back at the road block. "Damn." Glenn mumbled and killed the engine. "Looks like we walk from here." I sighed and leapt off B.W. putting her keys in my back pocket again and leaving my helmet with her. "We'll be back for them, don't worry." He promised, putting a hand on my shoulder. We pulled ourselves up over the barricade and dropped to the other side. I took the safety off of my gun and handed Glenn my machete.

This wasn't right, where was everything? Where were the Walkers, the people, the soldiers, the refugees? Finally we turned a corner and Glenn stopped. I followed his gaze and saw a woman walking with her back to us. "Mom?" He choked out. "MOM!" The figure stopped and turned to us and Glenn's smile dropped.

She was a Walker.

I saw movement behind her and took a few steps forward. That's when they turned the corner and I saw the horde. There were at least a hundred of them, drawn by Glenn's voice. "Glenn, we have to go." I said. He just stood there, shocked, as the Walkers started getting closer. "GLENN!" I shook him and he saw them. I grabbed his arm and we booked it the way we had come, scrambling to get back to the barricade, but they came from that side too.

"Into the building!" Glenn yelled and we burst into a department store, sealing the two sets of doors behind us as the Walkers closed in. As Glenn stared at the glass doors I looked around frantically for a way out. There was one door on the side of the barricade where the car and B.W. were. I ran back to Glenn, who was standing in shock. I turned to the door and saw his mother, standing with a man I assumed was

"My father." He said, reassuring my thought. "And my sister is right there." He said hollowly.

"Glenn, I'm so sorry, but we have to go."

"Why?" He whispered.

"Because you still owe me a life saving and you're not dying before it's repaid." I said. "And because I don't want to have saved you for nothing, you're smart Glenn, we need each other." He turned to me and slowly nodded.

"Okay." He said finally. "What's the plan?"

"There's a door, if we split up we can make it out of here, I'll go into the forest, you take the road out of here and we'll meet at the quarry we passed on the way here, deal?"

"Sam that's crazy."

"But it'll work. If we go together we have no chance. I can't get B.W. out of a group that big."

"Why go into the forest?"

"if you go first they won't follow me, they'll follow the car because it's louder, I'll be fine, it's me." I sounded brave as I tried to hide my fear from Glenn. "But, just in case I don't come back-"

"Sam you will come back-"

"Glenn, please." I grabbed his hands. "If I don't come back, please find my brothers, tell them I love them and that I'm sorry." I bit my lip and slipped the key and my parent's rings off my neck. "Give them this."

"Sam I can't take this from you."

"You have to, they'll trust you if you have that, they'll know that you're not lying." I swallowed nervously. "You should go; we don't have a lot of time." I started to walk off, but Glenn's voice brought me back

"Sam."He grabbed my wrist and pulled me back into a desperate kiss. He pulled away, his face bright red. "You better come back." He said, and ran off. I stopped and smiled, and then followed him and watched as he drove off, honking the horn trying to get the Walkers to follow him. The mob went after him and I was scared for him, what if they broke the windows?

I stopped and let out a deep breath, I had to focus and time this right or I was in some serious trouble. Finally I took off down the street, the woods were a good six blocks away. I ran so fast that my feet felt like they were going to give out from under me, but finally I reached the safety of the trees. There weren't any Walkers that I saw, but I wasn't going to slow down in case they were hiding or something.

Then out of nowhere I went flying through the air and was hanging upside down. My gun had fallen to the ground as I looked up to see a rope tied around my ankle. It was a trap, probably left here by some hunter before the shit hit the fan. Of course I had given Glenn my machete. I tried to pull myself up to undo the knot when there was whizzing sound and something grazed my thigh.

"Son of a bitch!" I growled. "I'm not dead! I'm alive!" I screamed to whoever had shot me. I turned around to see an arrow sticking out of a tree trunk. I looked up at my thigh to see blood pooling around my jeans and starting to run down my leg. Not a good sign. Suddenly there was noise in the bushes. If it was a Walker I was in some serious shit, but a living man walked out.

He was probably in his late forties or early fifties with gray shaved hair and pale white skin blotched with red from the heat. He had sad blue eyes set back in deep purple circles and was wearing a sash of dead squirrels. He smiled at me and I knew I was in worse trouble than if it had been a Walker. I had seen that look time after time in Savannah and it only meant one thing.

"Well looky here, hey baby brother, you caught yourself a little lady!" He walked closer to me and I gagged at the stench of his sweat. He took my chin in his hand and looked me over like a cow he wanted to buy. "And a pretty one at that." He cooed.

"Get your paws off of me!" I spat, smacking his hand away.

"Ooh! Feisty too! I like that in a woman."

I had to get out of here, and I had to get out now. I groped at the ground for my gun, but he picked it up and held it in front of me, just out of my reach. "Looking for this? Now that's not very nice. Besides, you shouldn't shoot this while you're in a forest crawling with dead people. My blood started to drip down and hit the grass below me. This caught the man's attention.

"Well I'll be damned, he shot you. Baby brother, you shot our lady friend!" He yelled the last part to the trees where I could hear someone else walking towards us. My vision started to spot and I felt dizzy as I watched a shadowy figure emerge from the bushes.

"Glenn…" I whispered.


	4. The Same As the Others

Every time I trust someone new, they end up reminding me why I shouldn't trust anyone at all. -Unknown

_I felt my blood turn to ice as I saw them in front of me. This couldn't be happening, Rachel was my age… I started to back up slowly, I had to leave. But as I was trying to make sure Morgan didn't hear me I stepped on a twig and the snap echoed through the streets. His head snapped up and he turned to me. That's when I saw how bad it was, there was blood everywhere, it was running through the streets and into the gutters as Morgan advanced towards me._

"_Sam, I can explain." He said slowly, treating me like an animal that would run if he got too close. I kept backing away, but I couldn't take my eyes off Rachel, she hadn't done anything to him. I shook my head, sending tears spilling onto the pavement. "Sam, please."_

_Then I ran. _

_I raced down the streets as fast as I could. I could hear Morgan running after me, but he couldn't be too loud or they would find us. I ran into Calvin, who was bewildered at the very least, but I just stood up and kept running. He would take Morgan's side, they all would. I would end up just like Rachel. I had to make it home, back to my family, even if that meant betraying the people that had saved me.__I ran as fast as I could into the bank and slammed the safe shut._

I slowly opened my eyes with a splitting headache. I was inside a tent, but everything looked slightly blurry and I wondered for a moment if I had turned and was a Walker now. I tried to lift my arm, but it felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. I looked around to see a figure sitting next to me.

"Glenn?" I whispered. The figure jolted up and looked at me. It wasn't Glenn; this man looked like the other one I remembered, but younger, maybe thirty, with dirty blonde hair, scruff on his face, and soft blue eyes. He was saying something, but I couldn't hear him. I started seeing black spots again as the man reached down and shook me, but it was just making me sleepier. He yelled something to someone but before they could come over I blacked out.

The next thing I remembered was pain shooting through my entire body. There was a figure standing over me and I felt like my heart was going to explode from how much everything hurt. I couldn't breathe and I felt my stomach spasming. Then my vision got spotty and I slipped into the darkness again.

"Hey girl, girlie, it's time to wake up now." I slowly opened my eyes to see the blonde man again. "She's alive!" He said and a small smile spread across his face.

"Where am I?" I asked.

"Outside Atlanta, you've been out for three days." He turned around and dipped something in what I assumed was water, then turned back and set a wet rag on my forehead.

"What happened?" I asked.

"You got caught in one of our traps and I… I thought you were a Walker, so I shot you. You've been fighting off an infection."

"I'm not going to turn, am I?" I asked.

"No, it would have happened by now, just a regular infection." He paused. "We almost lost you." He pressed the rag to my cheeks and then dipped it back in the water and set it back on my forehead.

"Did you see the man I was with? He was in a car." I asked. The man shook his head.

"That Glenn?" He asked.

"Yeah, how do you..?"

"You talk in your sleep, kept saying 'Glenn'. He your boyfriend?" I blushed as I thought about Glenn kissing me, how he looked at me, but I sighed.

"No, we've just been traveling together."

"Hmm." Was all the man said.

"I'm Sam." I said finally. "Sam Harper."

"Daryl Dixon, the man who you saw before you passed out is my brother Merle." I felt a shiver creep up my spine at the memory of how he looked at me. Daryl must have seen my fear because he chuckled. "Sorry about him, he doesn't know how to treat a lady. But don't you worry, he went back to camp."

"Camp?" I asked.

"There's a huge group of survivors that live by a quarry a few miles away." I felt my heart jump, Glenn must have found them.

"We have to go." I said, sitting up.

"Whoa, easy now. You just came back from the dead." He advised. "Maybe we should wait a few days, it's a long walk." I shook my head.

"I'll be fine." I said simply. I shakily stood and fell back into Daryl's arms.

"Warned you." He said simply. I felt cold and looked down to see that my pants were gone and I was just in my tank top and underwear. I blushed and smacked Daryl across the face and stumbled away from him. I grabbed my gun which was lying by my backpack and aimed it between his eyes.

I thought of Rachel, lying in the ditch, how I couldn't end up like that and fought back my tears. No. I wouldn't end up like that. Daryl just looked at me calmly. "You really going to shoot the guy that just saved your life?" He asked simply. I kept the gun pointed at him, but I could feel my knees shaking from my lack of strength. Before I could say a word my knees gave out and I collapsed back to the ground. Daryl jumped on top of me and pinned me to the ground, shoving the gun away from us.

"You bastard!" I spat as I fought against him, but he just pinned my arms above my head with one of his hands. I couldn't help but notice how rough his hands were and how he smelled like an animal.

"Look, if I had wanted to do something to you, I would have done it already. I couldn't roll up your pants far enough to get to your wound and I used your sweatshirt to stop the bleeding. Jesus."

"Get off of me." I snapped.

"You going to try and shoot me again? Because I'm the only way you're getting out of these woods. And if you shoot me you'll draw every Walker for miles and you can't even stand. You really want to do that?" I stopped fighting and Daryl let go of my arms, but stayed over me. "That's better. Now if you want me to help you, you've got to trust me."

"Fine." I said finally.

"Alright, now I'll leave so you can get dressed, deal?"

"Deal." I said simply. He slowly stood and helped me to my feet and walked out of the tent. I grabbed my jeans and slipped them on and threw my hair into a braid to keep it out of my face. I looked through my backpack for a jacket, but couldn't find one. I sighed when I remembered I'd left the other one with my first backpack, which was in Glenn's car. "Alright." I called to Daryl." He stepped back inside and looked at me shivering and sighed.

He grabbed a denim jacket from a corner of the tent and dropped it over my shoulders. "We've got to keep you warm so you can get better." He said. I didn't say anything, I just thought about Glenn. He must be so worried about me, if he was even still alive. I looked up and saw Daryl's soft blue eyes staring at me and felt blush creep up my neck. He had the upper hand earlier, he could have easily taken me if he really wanted, but he didn't.

"Why didn't you?" I asked.

"Why didn't I what?" He asked.

"Earlier, you could have easily…you know. Why didn't you?" He stared at me like I'd just grown horns.

"Look here girlie, I'm not that kind of guy." I nodded. "But you know…if you want to…" He smiled at me and I rolled my eyes. He sighed. "Look, I know you miss your friend, so I'll tell you what. First thing tomorrow we'll head back towards the camp." I smiled weakly.

"Okay."

"For now you've got to rest, it's a long walk." I nodded and Daryl stood to leave. "Well, I'm going to go catch some dinner, see you soon."

"Daryl." I said. He stopped and turned around. "Thank you, for saving me."

"Couldn't let a Walker get you now could I?" And then he was gone.

I slept for the rest of the day, trying to get back my strength, I hated being so helpless, having to make other people care for me. I knew I owed Daryl my life now, and I was worried about what that meant.

Rachel had owed Morgan her life.

I tried to get the ghosts out of my head as I pulled Daryl's jacket tighter around me. I couldn't end up like that. I heard something open the door and shot up, aiming my gun at Daryl again. When I saw it was him I set it back down. I winced, my leg hadn't liked me doing that and I was pretty sure I had reopened it.

Daryl sighed and set down his crossbow, coming over to me. "Do you want to get back to camp or not?" He asked.

"I thought you were a Walker." I admitted.

"Well, now I'm going to have to rewrap this." He said, fumbling around in a bag until he pulled out some gauze. "Now take off your pants."

"Listen, I can-"

"Sam, no you can't. Just let me help you." I sighed and pulled off my jeans, wincing as they went over my gash. The blood had started to stick to the denim and it hurt like Hell to try and pull off. I sat there blushing as Daryl unwrapped the blood soaked gauze and let out a low whistle. "You pulled out your stitches." He said grimly. He looked back up at me. "This is going to hurt, a lot." I remembered waking up in pain; that must have been when he was stitching up me leg the first time.

But I knew I would have to get through it to get back to Glenn and find my brothers. I looked into Daryl's eyes and simply nodded. "Do it."

He searched a while for something, and then pulled out a needle and surgical thread. I laid back and closed my eyes. I thought back to before all this had started. When Jason, Simon and I would go to the speedway and race go carts, building B.W. with my dad. My mom and I talking about boys I thought were cute. I gripped the floor, trying to channel the pain as the needle slipped into my skin.

I had to find Simon and Jason. I had to find Glenn, I had promised that I would come back to him and I was Hell bent on keeping that promise. I remembered when he and I had looked at the stars together, when he just held me after I found my parents, him saving me from falling into the horde of Walkers.

Finally I felt Daryl wrapping my leg up with gauze. He helped me sit up and got me his canteen. I took a greedy gulp of water and bit my lip. My leg still ached.

"You are the toughest chick I have ever met in my life." I turned to Daryl, who was staring at me with a look that was mixed between awe and disbelief.

"Thank you." I said, pulling his jacket tighter around my shoulders. He reached over me and grabbed the blanket, which he spread over me.

"So, little miss mystery, where are you from?"

"Macon. My dad owned a bike shop." This sparked his interest.

"Really, [i]you[/i] wouldn't happen to know how to fix bikes too, would you?"

"Yeah, I was going to take over the shop before the world went to Hell. I built my own bike, which is in Atlanta right now."

"Really? Well, my brother Merle has an old Triumph Bonneville 650 and we can't get the damn thing to start, do you think you could take a look at it when we get back to camp?"

"Sure, on one condition."

"Name it." He said eagerly.

"Help me get my bike back." I extended my hand for him to shake, he smirked at me and shook my hand.

"Done."

The next few days blended together as I stayed with Daryl. He would go out and hunt during the day, I would rest, he'd come back at night and we'd talk until the sun came back up. He'd sleep at night and I slept during the day so someone was always keeping watch. Finally, after four days I was able to walk on my own and Daryl said it was time to go back to the camp.

We left at sunrise the next morning. I packed everything neatly into my backpack while he shoved his things back in his bag. We stepped outside and I smiled. I couldn't wait to work or Merle's bike, it would make me feel right back at home again. But when He didn't even bother to take down the tent and started to walk away I jogged to keep up.

"Aren't we taking the tent?" I asked.

"No, I'll come back on another hunting trip, so we just leave it here.

"Huh." I said.

Daryl hadn't been kidding when he said this was a long walk. We had left at sunrise and right about sunset we made it to a clearing. I looked around and saw tents and people, so many people all smiling and acting, well, normal. I had to balance myself on Daryl as we made it to the top of a hill and Merle ran over to us.

"Bout time you got back! To busy fucking her to catch anything?" Daryl tried to hide the blush trying to snake its way up his neck.

"It's in my bag you bastard." He said, smirking at Merle and punching his shoulder. "And I did find out that this little lady can fix your bike."

"Really? Don't know if I want some damn broad touching my bike." He muttered. I shook my head and looked back to the camp. That's when I saw him.

Glenn was standing with a woman with curly brown hair and a huge guy with black hair. He turned and saw me and a huge smile broke across my face. I ignored the pain in my leg and ran as fast as I could to him and he sped over to me. We met halfway, crashing into a huge hug. "I thought I'd never see you again." I whispered, clutching him to me.

"When Merle said you'd been shot I wanted to go get you, but he said I'd never make it down there and Shane sent me to scout…"

"Glenn, I don't care. What matters is that…" I pulled back and looked at him "We're together again."

"And we're never splitting up again, just so you know." He teased.

"Deal." I said, hugging him again. I suddenly remembered Daryl and turned around to introduce him. "Glenn, this is Daryl." I said, leaning on Glenn as we walked over to him and Merle. Glenn smiled and stuck out his hand.

"Thanks for bringing her back to me." He said. Daryl looked at Glenn's hand, then turned and walked away. "Nice guy." Glenn commented.

"Let me talk to him." I said. I limped over to Daryl, who was pretending to look at Merle's bike. "What the Hell was that?" I asked.

"What was what?" He asked. I shook my head. He had been so kind and compassionate in the woods, why was he being such an asshole.

"Why won't you talk to Glenn? He wanted to thank you and you just walked away."

"I ain't talking to no damn china man." I rolled my eyes at his excuse.

"He's Korean."

"Whatever." He snapped. "Just fix Merle's bike and you and your _Korean_ lover boy can get out of my hair."

"Why are you being such an ass?"

"Why did you lie to me?" He snapped, sitting up and staring me down with his now icy eyes.

"When did I lie to you?" I asked.

"You said he wasn't your boyfriend, just some guy you were traveling with. Let me tell you something little lady. People don't run to people like that if they're "just travelling together." They don't." I blushed as I wondered if maybe Daryl was jealous. He hadn't acted like he wanted me in any way, but…

I looked around the camp. From what I saw I was the only girl who was anywhere near Daryl's age.

"Daryl…I…"

"Hello there! You must be the girl Daryl shot." I turned to see an older guy with a beard smiling at me. "Name's Dale. I'm assuming you're Sam, Glenn won't stop talking about you." I heard Daryl throw a wrench to the ground and he stormed off. I was going to follow him, but Dale stopped me. "Don't worry about him, he's got a short temper."

I watched him walk off. It wasn't a short temper at all. I thought about what I would do if I liked a girl and saved her only for her to run back into another man's arms. I felt bad and hoped that maybe that wasn't it and he was just tired or something. I turned back to Dale.

"Yes, I'm Sam. So, what's Glenn told you?"

"Only that you're a good person to have around when you've got a machete in your hands." He helped me walk over to the center of camp and introduced me to everyone. They all seemed nice enough, except for when Dale introduced me to a gray haired woman named Carol.

"So, you're the one Glenn's crazy about." She said. I blushed.

"I wouldn't go that far, we've just been travelling together-"

"So you spend a week alone in the woods with another man?" She snapped. "That's not how you treat people."

"I didn't really have a choice." I said.

"Sure you didn't." She snarled, getting right in my face. "You listen here you little harlot, Daryl has been through enough without you treating his heart like your own personal plaything. So stay away from him and stay away from my daughter." and then she stormed off, taking her daughter with her.

"I don't think she likes me." I said to Dale.

"She just got the wrong idea, but out of curiosity…" Dale looked at me, raising his eyebrows. I blushed, remembering Daryl pinning me down.

"No. Nothing happened." I said simply.

"Hey, you never know. A pretty young girl and a young guy alone in the woods for a week." Dale and I both laughed as he walked me over to a small fire and sat me down between him and Glenn. I remembered most of the people sitting with us. There was Shane, the guy with the black hair, Lori was the woman I'd seen with him, next to her was her son Carl, Andrea and her sister Amy, and T-Dog. They all were asking me where I was from and how I'd managed to survive being shot. I smiled and answered all their questions, but I couldn't help but see Daryl sitting with Merle just glaring at me. Every time I looked over he would turn away, but I could feel his eyes burning a hole in me.

"So." Shane said, bringing me back to the conversation. "Where were you when the shit hit the fan?" I sighed.

"I was in Savannah at a show for my dad's shop. It was the first one for us, my dad couldn't go, so I said that I would. Then… everything started."

"Jesus, what's Savannah like?" Shane asked. I felt a shiver creep up my spine as I thought of Rachel.

"Worse than Atlanta, but not because of the Walkers. There's a group of survivors there they just…" I closed my eyes and Glenn put his hand on my shoulder.

"Shane, now look what you did." Dale joked.

"Are you okay?" Glenn whispered as the rest of our little group changed topics. I looked over at Daryl, who was glaring at me now and not trying to hide it.

"Fine."


	5. Space Bound

All my life, my heart has yearned for a thing I cannot name. –Andre Breton

-Daryl-

I sat next to Merle fuming. How could she do this to me? I had really started to… I sighed and bit into the squirrel I had been roasting.

"What's gotten into you?" Merle asked. I looked back at Sam, she was staring right back at me with those giant brown eyes of hers. Merle followed my gaze and started laughing. "You're kidding me right? That broad hurt your feelings?" He mocked.

"Shut up." I snapped.

"Ooh, you must really like her if you're this upset. Let me guess, she jumped in the sack with you, but the second she sees her little china man she drops you like a rattlesnake." I ignored him and looked back at Sam, but she was talking to Shane about something. I heard the word "Savannah" tossed around a lot and she looked really uncomfortable. "Hey, she's hot, I'll give you that. But if she likes fixing bikes she's probably a lesbian. Especially with your shitty luck."

"Will you stop already?" I asked. 'Hot' was definitely not the word I'd use to describe Sam. Hot is what you would say about a chick you wanted to bang and then not talk to again. I wanted to sleep with her, sure, but I wanted to hold her in my arms again like I had when she fell against me. I had almost lost it when I had her pinned down, but I wasn't like that, as tempting as she was.

I looked back at her, her dark brown eyes, the way her light brown hair shined in the firelight, her soft lips. But what I really wanted to know about was her nose, I could tell it had been broken, and I wanted to know why. There was so much about her that I wanted to know. Where was her family? How did she know how to build a bike from scratch when she was no older than twenty three? I glared at Glenn. What in the Hell did that little dweeb have that I didn't?

"Daryl." I looked up to see Carol standing next to me.

"What?" I asked.

"You should come sit with Ed, Sophia and I." She glared at Sam. "Away from these negative influences."

"What the Hell did she do to you?" I asked. Carol almost never got mad. Her eyes snapped back to mine.

"I don't trust her. She seems like she's hiding some dirty little secret. Like what you two did while you were alone in the woods for a week." I thought of Sam whimpering while she slept. The reason she stayed up all night that she refused to tell me. Was she hiding something that she'd done? I sighed and ran my hand through my hair.

"Oh, you mean how he fucked her for a week straight-" Merle started.

"Merle shut the Hell up." I snapped. "Carol, nothing happened. I shot her, I took care of her. That's all." Merle stared at me.

"You have a hot piece of ass like that and you didn't do anything? You a queer?"

"I'm going to bed." I said, standing up and walking away before the two of them could say anything else. I took of my shirt and jeans the second I closed the tent door and plopped down on my sleeping bag, looking at the ceiling. I thought of Sam pressed into my arms again, she was so warm and soft. I thought of her eyes again, how fierce they'd been when she was aiming her gun at me, it was sexy as Hell.

I heard someone unzip the door to the tent and sighed. "Look Merle I-" I sat up to see Sam standing over me. I leapt to my feet and got in her face. "What the Hell do you want?" I growled. She looked at me with those giant brown eyes and I felt my stomach tighten. Why could she do this to me?

"Carol told me what you said, how you stuck up for me. I wanted to thank you." She said. "She still doesn't like me, but at least she doesn't think I'm a whore."

"What would make her think that?" I muttered sarcastically. I wanted nothing more than to grab her and throw her onto my sleeping bag. I was already mostly undressed, and all she had on was a tank top and jeans, easy enough. I'd have to be careful of her leg though.

"Look, I'm sorry that you're mad at me, but there's nothing between Glenn and I. I wasn't lying to you. He's just; he's like family to me, that's all." Why did she look so sad when she said there was nothing between her and Glenn? "Oh, and I came to give this back to you." She slipped my jacket off her shoulders and handed it to me. "Don't want people thinking…well, giving them a reason to think what they already think." She sighed. "I should probably go." She said quietly, she turned to leave, but I couldn't help myself.

"Sam." She turned back to me with those eyes. I swallowed nervously. "How did you break your nose?" She looked surprised at the question, but then just smiled.

"When I was in third grade a seventh grader was picking on my little brother Simon. I told him to shut the Hell up and he broke my nose. But then I fractured his jaw and he ran away crying, so I think I won."

"He hit a girl?" I asked.

"He was just sort of an asshole." She admitted, but then her smile dropped. "He's probably dead now." She said sadly.

"Sam…" She looked up at me and all I could think about was grabbing her and pressing her lips to mine. "I couldn't help but hear you say something about Savannah, earlier, is that where you were when everything started?" She got this really sad look about her and nodded. "What happened?" I had heard rumors about a group of Cartel Survivors running the place like a pack of wolves, taking what they wanted and killing anyone who opposed them.

"It was… Jesus, I don't even know where to start." She admitted.

"You don't have to talk about it." I said, but she shook her head.

"Everyone's got shit that they dealt with; I'm no different than anyone else." She paused, then spoke. "I was with a group of survivors lead by this guy named Morgan. We were living in a bank to stay safe from the survivors who'd taken over the city. Well, one day I was scavenging for weapons and I saw Morgan over this girl named Rachel. He'd killed her, slashed her throat open, and he was raping her while she was dying there in the street. I knew that no one would believe me if I told them, and that I would be next, so I ran back and hid in the safe and locked everyone out. Then the other group killed all of them while I just hid in there…" She stopped and took a moment to compose herself. "I left the next night."

"Jesus…" I said.

"Well, now you know." She said. "I'm a coward." She mumbled.

"Hey." She looked back at me. "You are not a coward. You did what you had to do to stay safe, no one can blame you for that. We've all left someone who needed us to stay alive." She smiled at me, then hugged me. I was a little surprised at first, but then held her to me, feeling the way we fit together. She pulled back all too soon and looked at me.

"Thank you Daryl. For everything." She stood on her toes and kissed my cheek and was gone before I could remember where I was. I smiled and laid back down, watching the sun set through the roof of the tent as I fell asleep.

I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like something was wrong. I looked over to see Merle snoring away. I got dressed and ran outside to see the moon was high in the sky. It was probably one or two in the morning. I looked around camp and didn't see anything, but I couldn't shake this feeling. I grabbed my crossbow and walked over to Glenn's tent and was surprised that Sam's things weren't in there.

Did she leave?

Maybe she was rooming with Andrea and Amy. I looked around and saw one of her pairs of shoes outside their tent. That's when I heard the splash. I ran down to the water, hiding behind a tree so whatever this was wouldn't see me. I turned slowly and felt my face get hot.

Sam was swimming in the water in just her bra and underwear. Her back was to me, so she hadn't seen me when I turned around. She bent over to wash her face and I hid back behind the tree, my heart racing. What was this and why did it only happen when I saw her? She must have heard me smack against the tree because the splashing stopped.

"Hello?" She whispered. She slowly walked out of the water and onto solid ground and I was trying to think of an excuse why I'd be down here. I heard the click of her gun as her feet padded closer and closer. She must have heart my heart thudding, I was pretty damn sure the whole planet could. I felt the metal against my head and turned to her. Her face was bright red as she lowered her gun and saw it was me.

"I can explain." I said.

"So explain!" She snapped, trying to stay quiet.

"I was going to wash up too and you beat me down here." I lied.

"Bullshit." She said. I handed her my jacket and she quickly covered up, much to my disliking I hate to admit.

"I just woke up and felt like something was wrong." I admitted. "I just thought-" A twig snapped and we both aimed out weapons at the bushes. I tried to move Sam behind me to protect her, but she wasn't having any of that as she stood her ground. We waited as finally Shane and Lori walked out of the bushes.

"Jesus Christ." Sam said, lowering her gun and turning even redder. Shane and Lori were terrified as I lowered my crossbow.  
"What the Hell are you two up to?" I asked.

"We could ask you the same thing." Lori snapped.

"Look, no one has to know about this." Shane said, steeping towards Sam. She looked terrified as I stuck my crossbow right in Shane's face.

"Back the Hell up." I growled.

"Look, we won't tell anyone that you were down here with Sam half naked if you don't tell anyone you saw us. I'd hate to see what everyone would think after you two swore nothing happened in the woods then this comes out." Lori said, smirking at Sam.

"I'd hate to see what your little boy thinks when he finds out mommy's forgotten all about daddy." I retorted.

"We won't say anything if you don't." Sam said. I turned to her, shocked.

"Sam, you don't have to-" but she just shook her head.

"_We_ won't say anything, but if you two talk, we'll start talking too." She snapped, glaring at Lori.

"Fine." Shane said. "Now everyone just go to bed and forget this ever happened." He ushered Lori up the ravine and I waited until I heard the two tents zip before I turned back to Sam.

"You didn't have to agree to that." I said. "Nothing happened."

"Nothing happened in the woods either, but who is everyone going to believe, me or Lori and Shane?"

"Hey, it's us, not just you." I set down my crossbow and walked over to her. "I've got your back on this." She smiled sadly. She'd stopped holding the jacket shut and I could see her stomach, shining from the water. She caught me staring and looked at me, but I couldn't stand it anymore.

"Daryl, wait-" But I had already smashed our lips together. I grabbed her hips and pulled us closer together as I kept my lips with hers. She was trying to pull away, but just like before when I had her pinned she eventually gave in and kissed me back. She grabbed my shoulder blades and it felt like lighting was coursing through my veins. There was a fire inside me as I tried desperately to close the small distance between us. But the second I tried to slip my jacket off her shoulders she grabbed my hand. "Stop." She said, pulling her lips away from mine.

"What?" I asked.

"This… it's not right." She whispered. "Besides, we don't know if Lori and Shane are watching us."

"Fuck Lori and Shane." I said simply, trying to kiss her again. But she backed up to her clothes and grabbed them, throwing them on and tossing my jacket back to me. "Sam." She kept walking. I grabbed her and turned her around, furious, but then I saw she was crying.

"I'm sorry." She said, wiping the tears away furiously with the palm of her hand. "Carol was right." She mumbled.

"Sam…" I didn't know what to say, so I just hugged her and let her cry. I was kind of new at this, so I didn't really know what to do as she composed herself.

"I'm sorry." She said again.

"For what? I attacked you." I said.

"But I went along with it-"

"Look Sam, Carol is not right, Lori and Shane are two losers who opinions don't even matter. Everyone else likes you… including me." She blushed and I wanted nothing more than to kiss her again, but finally she spoke.

"I should go." She said. She looked at me with those beautiful eyes again and I just nodded and watched her walk away.  
The next morning was uncomfortable to say the least. We didn't really look at each other during breakfast and if we did Sam turned bright red and looked the other way. I sort of stayed out of everyone's way until I heard Sam's voice.

"No, Absolutely not." She snapped. I looked over to see her between Shane and Glenn.

"Samantha." She cringed as Shane used her full name. "Look, Glenn is a scavenger, we need him to get food and supplies. You can't go with him because you can't keep up."

"Bull shit-" She started, but Andrea put a hand on her shoulder and looked at Shane. "I'll go with him." She said.

"Me too." I looked over to see T-Dog volunteering. "I'll keep a close eye on him Sam." I watched as a huge group gathered, saying they would go with Glenn. I heard Merle sigh next to me and he stood up, walking over to them.

"I'll go too." He said. "Got nothing better to do." I chuckled and just shook my head. Glenn seemed hesitant to take so many people with him, but eventually agreed. They got ready to head out and Sam looked pissed that she couldn't go. Glenn walked over to say goodbye and she just clutched him and whispered something in his ear.

I thought about last night, when she'd held me the same way. Only she didn't seem to care if anyone saw her hug Glenn. I could feel my blood boiling as they left and Sam just watched them, waving goodbye with Amy. Finally she walked over to where I was.

"What, now that Glenn's gone you want to see me?" I snapped.

"I just came to fix Merle's bike." She said quietly.

"Oh." I stood up and let her kneel down, some of Dale's tools by her side. I handed her the keys and she tried to turn on the engine. "See?" It keeps stalling but it won't actually start." I said. She just took in a huge breath, let out a long sigh and got to work. I was starting to get worried when I saw a lot of the bike on the ground. But finally she smiled and put the bike back together faster than she'd taken it apart and turned it on again, only this time the engine roared to life. She grinned as the bike hummed, but our moment was ended when Shane stormed over.

"What the Hell do you think you're doing? That'll draw every Walker for miles, turn it off." Sam glared at him while she clicked off the engine. "You two had better watch yourselves." He warned.

"No, you'd better watch yourself Shane." I growled, getting right in his face.

"Look, why don't you two just go off into the woods and fuck like everyone knows you already did?" Shane replied.

"Shut your damn mouth." I snarled.

"Daryl, stop." I felt Sam's hand on my chest and backed up. Shane smirked at us.

"See, at least your bitch is smart." He snapped, then swaggered off. I spun around to Sam.

"Why the Hell did you do that?" I demanded. "Are you ashamed of me or something?"

"No, it's not that Daryl. I just… she ran her hands through her hair.

"You just what? You're too busy fucking your little china man to make any time for me?"

"He's Korean." She snapped.

"I don't give a damn if he's from Mars!" I growled and stormed off.

I somehow wandered over by Dale's RV and I heard his voice. "Daryl, you look like you could use a beer." I turned to see him grinning at me and sighed. A beer sounded great right now. I walked over and plopped down next to him. "So, you seem to be quite smitten over Sam." He said, tossing me a beer. I took a long chug and sighed.

"And what would make you think that?" I asked.

"Trust me, I used to look at my wife the same way you look at her. I know."

"Doesn't matter, she likes that damn china man." I snapped. Dale looked at me for a long time before he spoke.

"You know, my father once told me something when I was in a similar situation when I was about your age. He sat me down and said 'Dale, loving someone who doesn't love you back is like hugging a cactus. The tighter you hold on, the more it's going to hurt.' I've never forgotten his words, and now I'm passing them on to you." I sighed and crushed the empty can.

"Thanks for the beer." I said, standing up. I went back to my tent and grabbed my things. I needed to get away from all of this for a while. I was about to leave when Shane strode up to me.

"Where the Hell do you think you're going?" He demanded.

"Hunting." I answered simply.

"You just got back from hunting."

"I know and there's already no damn food left." I snapped. I glared at him and kept walking. I wasn't that far into the trees before I heard her voice.

"Daryl." I turned to see Sam looking at me with those beautiful eyes. She walked up to me. "You weren't going to say goodbye?" She asked quietly.

"Figured you wouldn't care either way." I said hollowly.

"Please don't do this, don't block me out." She begged. I thought about what Dale had said.

"Do you care about me?" I asked.

"What?"

"Do you care about me Sam? Because I may not be too good at the whole romance thing, but I do know I don't want you to die. I want to hold you…like I did last night. And for a lot of nights after that. Can you say that Sam?"

"I…I don't know."

"So you just want to use me until your stupid china man loves you back?" I growled.

"No. Daryl, please, that's not it. I haven't even known you that long! I don't know where you're from or what happened to your family-"

"Merle _is_ my family. And your china man better bring him back or I'll kill him." She looked terrified as I walked off into the woods. I knew that had been a little harsh,

But I needed to let her go.


	6. Missing

"Imay have trust issues, but some people seem to have an issue with the responsibility of being trusted.**" -**Unknown

~Sam~

I stood there and watched as Daryl walked away. I had really fucked all of this up. I wanted to run after Daryl, tell him that I was sorry, but I knew now that I cared about Glenn, even if he didn't feel the same way. I felt like shit, I had really hurt him. But I knew that he wouldn't listen to me, why should he? I didn't even want to listen to me.

As I continued to stand there, even after he was long gone, I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Amy smiling sadly at me. "Listen, I'm going down to go fishing, you should come with me." She looked at the trees. "It'll take your mind off things." I nodded slowly and turned to her.

"Okay."

As we sat out on the boat in the middle quarry Amy couldn't help but start asking questions.

"So… what happened between you two? I know he has a short temper, but I've never seen him that upset." I sighed; I guess I couldn't blame her. When I was her age I'd always wanted to be 'in the know' too. It was just sort of in a teenage girl's biology to know what was going on. I smiled sadly.

"Well, he saved me and when we got back I just sort of forgot about him because I was so happy to see that Glenn was okay-"

"Ooh! Do you like Glenn?" I blushed, remembering him kissing me. Amy saw how red my face was and took it as my answer squealing as she hugged me. "That's so cute! Does he like you too?" I bit my lip.

"I don't think so." I admitted. Amy's smile dropped.

"Oh." I shrugged.

"It's fine, I've kind of started to accept it."

"Well he's stupid if he doesn't realize how cool you are. I heard that you took down six Walkers all by yourself!"

"Yeah, I did."

"I wish I could do something cool like that." She said quietly. I smiled.

"Well I'll tell you what, once we catch some dinner I'll show you how, deal?" She got a huge grin on her face.

"Deal!"

We continued to chat about our lives before all this happened, and Amy told me that her parents were in Florida and might still be alive. I reassured her, not telling her that they'd said the same things while I was in Savannah about the rest of Georgia. But she didn't seem to notice my hesitation as she continued talking about this guy she met one time in Florida and wondering if maybe he was still alive. I just smiled and nodded, glad to be able to forget about everything as we reeled in fish after fish.

As we pulled the boat onto shore I could tell Amy was getting more than a little worried.

"They should be back by now." She muttered. I felt my stomach tighten as I thought about Glenn, how hesitant he was to take so many people with him.

"I'm sure they're fine. Andrea and Glenn will take good care of them." I tried. But Amy could see that I was worried too as the sun sunk lower into the sky. "C'mon, I'll teach you how to use my machete." I said, trying to get her mind off it as we handed the fish to Carol, who smiled at Amy but didn't even look at me. I ignored her as I took Amy into the clearing and handed her my machete. "All right, now the key is to concentrate and to not be afraid. This blade is really sharp, so you have to be careful, it's not a toy." Amy held it in her hands, feeling it's weight and finally smiling and holding it in her hand.

"What do I hit?" She asked. I grinned at her enthusiasm as I pointed to a patch of small, dead trees. She walked over to them carefully as I stood back; but before she hit the tree she stopped and turned to me. "Will you show me how you do it?" She asked. I sighed and walked over, taking the knife in my hand and walking over to a small tree, staring it down as I sliced it down. She let out a low whistle as I handed the knife back to her and smiled.

"Just don't think, let it do all the thinking for you." She nodded and turned back, a look of complete concentration on her face as chopped down one of the trees with one swing. A smile lit up her face as she turned to me to make sure I had seen it. I grinned as she turned back around and chopped down another tree, and another and another until they were all on the ground.

"That was so cool!" She exclaimed turning to me. "I felt like a ninja or something!"

"It's a good skill to have if you've got a Walker coming at you." I said. She handed the knife back to me and we took the small trees back to camp to use for firewood.

I couldn't help but notice Shane and Lori watching me with very measured glares, so that no one would notice if they just took a quick glance. Suddenly Carl, Lori's son, ran up to me.

"Did you guys cut that down with her knife?" He asked. Amy chuckled.

"Well,_ I_ did." She joked.

"Will you teach me how to do that?" He asked, staring at me with his huge blue eyes. I smiled.

"If it's okay with your mother, I would love to." I said, patting him on the head. "But for now can you help us carry some of this firewood?"

"Yeah!" He said, grabbing half of my bundle and half of Amy's. I chuckled as the wood covered his face and Amy and I lead him to the fire pits. I was just setting down my wood when I heard the car alarm. I dropped the rest and shot up, looking on the roadway for the source of the sound. What if it was a distress signal or something from the group that had gone scavenging? The whole camp was silent as the car alarm got closer and closer, finally a small red car darted up to the campsite, alarm blaring.

"Who is it?" Amy asked Dale, who was on top of the RV keeping watch.

"I can't tell, but it's one person." I felt my blood turn to ice as the car got closer and closer. Finally it turned the corner and I saw Glenn through the windshield as he pulled up. Shane marched over as I ran as best as I could.

"Turn that off!" He snapped.

"I don't know how!" Glenn admitted. I reached inside the car and popped the hood, pulling the alarm wire as the alarm went dead.

"You're going to draw every Walker for miles-" Shane started, I turned around, ready to give him what for, but Dale spoke first.

"You never know Shane, this hills echo a lot, they might not be able to pinpoint the source." He said. Amy ran up to Glenn, terrified.

"Where's Andrea?"

"She's fine, she's with the others."

"Where are they?" No sooner had she spoken then a truck rolled up and the group jumped out of the back. I saw something familiar in the back of the truck, and felt my heart skip a beat. Black Widow was sitting in the bed of the truck. I spun around to Glenn, who was just grinning at me.

"How did you?"

"I promised I'd get her back for you." Was all he said. I ran hugged him tightly."Oh!" He said. "I forgot to give this back to you." He started to pull off my key and my parents wedding rings, but I put my hand over his.

"Keep it." I said.

"Sam, I can't-"

"It'll keep you safe." I said, smiling. I put my arm around him as I watched the others all get out of the truck, but then my smiled dropped.

"Glenn?" I asked.

"Hmm?"

"Where's-"

"So how did you guys get out of there? Amy asked, not realizing she'd interrupted me.

"We wouldn't have made it if it hadn't been for new guy." Glenn answered, smiling. "Hey new guy! Come on out!" I watched as the door opened and an older guy with brown hair and bright blue eyes stepped out of the van. I didn't think much of it until I saw him staring at someone, then I heard Charlie.

"Daddy?" I turned to see Carl and Lori both looking like they'd seen a ghost as they ran to each other and the new guy took them in his arms.

"Rick!" Lori whispered as she hugged him. I smiled, hoping that I would be able to find my brothers like how he'd found Lori and Carl. But then I remembered Lori and Shane…

I whipped my head around to see Shane, but he didn't look very happy. Actually, he looked almost scared as they embraced. I remembered my own fear as I turned back to Glenn.

"Where's Merle?" I asked. Glenn bit his lip and the whole group that had come back all looked embarrassed. Finally the new guy, Rick, explained.

"He was attacking T-Dog, so I handcuffed him to a pipe on the roof." He said.

"And I dropped the key." T-Dog finished. I felt a cold shiver creep up my spine as I remembered what Daryl had said.

"And you just…left him there?" I asked in disbelief.

"Sam, you don't understand, there were Walkers everywhere, we didn't have time. But I chained the door shut so no Walkers could get him." T-Dog explained. I looked at Glenn and hugged him, terrified about what Daryl might do.

"Sam what's wrong?" He whispered. I just clutched him tighter to me. I wouldn't let Daryl hurt him. I wouldn't let anyone hurt him ever.

"I was just worried you wouldn't come back." I said, it was the truth, but not the whole truth. I continued to hold him as the rest of the group cleared out.

"Sam, it's okay, next time it'll just be you and me. I won't leave you again." He promised, smiling at me. I smiled back weakly as we walked over to where people were starting fires for dinner.

We mostly just talked to Rick through dinner, but eventually Merle crept back into the conversation. "So." Dale said. "How do you think Daryl is going to take this?" We were all quiet as I remembered his threat again. I took Glenn's hand in mine.

"Sam, you know Daryl, well, more than the rest of us." Shane said hinting at me. Glenn looked confused, as did most of the others, I wanted to kill Shane.

"He'll probably want to go back and get him." I said. "I would if it was one of my brothers or Glenn."I said. My answer seemed to worry Lori as she looked at Rick, who was looking into the fire. "But I do know this, when he comes back from his hunting trip, all Hell is going to break loose."

That night I was about to go into Andrea and Amy's tent, but Glenn stopped me. His face was bright red.

"Hey Sam? Do you think… will you move…" I smiled and patted his shoulder.

"Sure." I said. I ducked into Amy and Andrea's tent and grabbed my things and walked back to Glenn's tent. And set out my sleeping bag. I laid down and was about to go to sleep when I heard Glenn roll over.

"Sam?"

"Hmm?" I asked, rolling back over to face him.

"What… what did Shane mean when he said you knew Daryl better than the rest of them?" I felt my hatred for Shane resurface, but kept a calm face.

"I spent a week alone in the woods with him, you get to know people that way. Look how well you know me after only a few days of us travelling together." This seemed to reassure him as I smiled. "Now go to sleep." I said, rolling back over so my back was to him.

I blushed as I remembered how Daryl had grabbed me the other night, how hungrily he had pressed our lips together. I felt terrible about it, and the memory made me sick to my stomach as I fell asleep.

The next morning I was a wreck. Daryl would probably be coming back today and we'd have to explain things to him. I sighed as I got out of the tent and faced the day. I would protect Glenn, no matter what Daryl tried to do, I would keep him safe. I had to.

The day was going smoothly until we heard a scream echo through the camp. I raced down along with everyone else to see Carl standing by a Walker, who was eating a deer. I grabbed Carl and pushed him behind me as I chopped the Walkers head off. Everyone else caught up and Lori took Carl into her arms as we all stared at the Walker.

"They've never gotten this close to camp before." Jacqui said quietly.

"Must be running out of food." I said solemnly. We heard a rustle in the bushes and I grabbed my knife again, ready to strike only to see Daryl walk out, crossbow in hand.

"What are all y'all-" He saw the Walker and the deer. "Dammit all to Hell! That was the first deer I've seen out here. Was going to feed us for weeks." He grumbled as he inspected it. "Do you think we can just cut around the bite?"

"We shouldn't risk it." Shane answered. Suddenly the Walkers head opened its eyes and looked at all of us. Daryl quickly unloaded an arrow into its brain and it stopped moving. He bent down and pulled it out, then glared at me.

"You got to get 'em in the brain. You should know that." He looked around as if he had just realized everyone else was there. "What are ya'll standing around for?"

"Daryl, we need to talk to you." Shane said as Daryl started walking back to camp. Shane, Rick, Dale and I jogged to keep up with him. "It's about Merle."

"He dead?" Daryl asked hollowly.

"Not quite." I said. He stopped and glared at me.

"Well where the Hell is he?" He asked, getting in my face.

"I handcuffed him to a pipe on the roof of a department store." Rick said, saving me.

"Who the Hell is this guy?" Daryl demanded.

"Rick Grimes. You're brother was threatening the rest of the group, I did what I had to do."

"Well Rick Grimes, what in the Hell gives you the right-" Daryl started.

"It's not his fault. I dropped the key." T-Dog said.

"And you couldn't pick it up?" Daryl snapped.

"I dropped it down a drain." I felt bad for Daryl as I watched the fury on his face. I couldn't even imagine what I would do if someone left Simon or Jason handcuffed to the roof of a store.

"Daryl, he's still alive." Rick said. "And I'm going to go back for him."

"Me too." T-Dog said. "I chained that door shut, no one can get in there but us."

"I'm not going to give up half our man power for Merle Dixon." Shane snapped.

"Hey!" Daryl started, but Rick held up his hand.

"Look, when I was surrounded I dropped a bag of guns, I cleaned out the locker back at the station. We need those guns."

"I still don't know if we can risk it-" Shane started.

"What if it was your brother Shane?" Rick asked. Shane thought about this for a while and it seemed to be enough.

"Okay." He said finally. Then Rick turned to Glenn and I felt my stomach tighten again.

"Glenn." Glenn's smile dropped. "I know it's asking a lot, but I would feel a lot better if someone who knew that city was there with us. I'm sure Lori and Carl would too."

"Fine." Glenn said finally.

"Well if he goes, I'm going." I said.

"No." Daryl and Glenn said simultaneously. I looked at all of them.

"I know what it's like to need to find your brothers. And you need me, my leg is fine now and I'm going." Rick nodded, but I could tell T-Dog, Glenn, and Daryl were all hesitant to bring me. I didn't tell them the real reason I was going was to make sure Daryl didn't "accidently" shove Glenn into a horde of Walkers or something.

I went back into the tent to grab my gun and Glenn was right behind me.

"Sam. I still don't think you should go." He said.

"Well I'm going. Besides, you promised me that we'd never split up again." I stood and walked over to him and wrapped him in a hug. "I can't lose you too." I admitted quietly.

"Sam…I…" I pulled back and gave Glenn a small kiss on the cheek and walked out of the tent, leaving him red faced. I walked over to the truck and pulled B.W.'s keys out of my pocket and rode her out of the truck and next to the other cars. I turned her off and just sat there, knowing full well that this could be the last time I ever saw her. I patted the gas tank and stood, walking over to Andrea.

"Andrea, can I ask you a favor?" She smiled at me.

"Anything." I set B.W.'s keys in her hand.

"Should something happen to me, don't let Carl and Dale tear her apart, please." Andrea looked at me for a long time, but then nodded.

"Okay." She said. I walked away and hopped into the truck, where Daryl was watching me.

"Why are you coming?" He asked finally. "You hate Merle."

"But I don't hate Glenn, T-Dog, Rick. And you'll get killed without me."

"Little smart ass." He grumbled as T-Dog and Glenn climbed in the back. Rick was about to hop in when Shane stopped him. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I saw Shane dig five bullets out of his bag and hand them to Rick. Daryl leapt up and yelled at Rick.

"C'mon let's go!" He hollered. Rick said something else to Shane as he hopped into the driver's seat. Glenn took shot gun while I sat in the back next to T-Dog and across from Daryl.

I just prayed that we'd all make it home.


	7. High Hopes

"Anger and jealousy can no more bear to lose sight of their objects than love." –George Eliot

As we rolled into Atlanta I could feel Daryl's eyes burning a hole in me. I just ignored him and sat so I was looking out the windshield between Rick and Glenn.

"So, what are we going for first, Merle or the guns?" T-Dog asked.

"Merle of course." Daryl snapped.

"But we can use the guns to get Merle." I said.

"Shut up." He growled at me, then turned to the others. "We get Merle first." Finally we came to some train tracks and Glenn said we would stop and walk from there so as not to attract any Walkers.

With careful timing and a few kill shots between Daryl and I we managed to get to the department store where they'd left Merle. We raced through the store, killing stray Walkers as we went and raced up the stairs. T-Dog sawed through the lock and we all burst onto the roof. "Merle?" Daryl called out, running over to where Rick said he'd handcuffed him.

When I saw the look on his face when he'd gotten over there I assumed the worst and raced over and saw as Daryl cried out. Merle had sawed his own hand off and had left it lying on the rooftop; there was a trail of blood leading off from his hand. Daryl collapsed to the ground as he stared at Merle's hand. Rick, Glenn, and T-Dog kept their distance, but I couldn't help but walk over and kneel down next to him, putting my hand on his shoulder. "We'll find him." I promised. Daryl turned and looked at me.

"Get away from me." He snarled. I put my hands up in surrender as I stepped back and Daryl stood, looking at T-Dog. "You got a doo rag or something?" T-Dog tossed him a bandana and he picked up Merles hand, tying the bandana around it. He then walked over to me and spun me around, shoving Merle's hand in my backpack. He then took his crossbow and started to follow the trail of blood.

"Daryl, maybe Sam and I should go ahead-" Glenn started. I sighed, Glenn was trying to be nice and spare Daryl the sight of most likely finding Merle bled out on the floor.

"Bullshit." Daryl snapped. "We all go because you all left him here." As we followed the trail it seemed more and more likely we'd find Merle dead since the amount of blood really started to add up. But then things started to look good when we spotted three dead Walkers. "See? He's tough enough to take out these sons of bitches." He said.

"No matter how tough a person is they can still die of blood loss." Rick warned him. Finally we came to a kitchen like area where a stove was still burning. But when I saw what was next to the stove I gasped. Daryl walked over and picked up an iron, looking at the burnt residue.

"Is that..?" Glenn asked.

"Skin." I answered. "He cauterized it."

"Told you he was a tough son of a bitch." Daryl said. We looked and saw the only way out of the kitchen was through the open door to the fire escape. Daryl was about to jump down when T-Dog spoke.

"Hold up. I ain't going into the street with no guns. Sorry."

"He's got a point." I told Rick.

"Alright, we get the guns, then we continue the search." Rick decided. Daryl looked like he wanted to rip Ricks head off, but eventually agreed.

We went back to an office in the department store and Glenn laid out the game plan using various bits of trash and scrap paper. "Alright, so I'll go onto the street here, with Rick and T-Dog behind me, then I grab the guns and come back either to Rick and T-Dog, or, if I get swamped, I run to Sam and Daryl, here." He pointed to where Daryl and I would be on his model. "So no matter what, I'm covered either way I go."

"I still don't want you on the street by yourself." I said. "I'll go."

"Sam, we both know you're not at a hundred percent right now with your leg. I'm the fastest, I'll go." I bit my lip, he was right.

"Hey, what were you before the world ended?" Daryl asked, impressed by Glenn's plan.

"A delivery boy."

As Daryl and I were getting ready to go to our place I hugged Glenn. "You'd better come back." I warned him.

"Don't worry, I've got this keeping me safe." He said, patting my key. I smiled as I jogged to catch up to Daryl. He was silent as we got to the gate to wait for Glenn. Finally I spoke.

"We'll find Merle, don't worry. Now that he's stopped the bleeding he should be fine."

"Don't talk to me." He said.

"Look Daryl, I said I was sorry-"

"Just stop! Why is it so damn hard for you to shut your mouth!" He growled. We continued to glare at each other until we could hear Glenn's sneakers thudding in our direction. I threw open the gate but I could hear someone yelling behind me. I turned my head to see a young guy hollering something in Spanish. Daryl was ready to kill him as Glenn raced through the gate and I shut it behind him.

The next thing I felt was pain in my back as I fell to the ground. I looked up to see six or seven guys standing over us with bats. Glenn and Daryl were on the ground too and they were trying to get the bag of guns from Glenn, but he wouldn't give them up. I leapt to my feet and jumped on one of the guys backs but he just kept slamming me into the wall. I saw them grabbing Glenn and jumped off him and ran towards him, trying to grab his hand, but he just threw me the guns as they dragged him outside the fence to an awaiting car.

"GLENN!" I screamed. I threw the guns to the ground and ran after them but Daryl grabbed me as I ran out into the street, pulling me back and shutting the fence. "GLENN!" I screamed again, tears rolling down my face. I had failed. I'd promised myself that I'd never let anyone touch Glenn and now he was gone. Daryl still held onto me, probably worried I'd run back out into the street as Rick and T-Dog ran up to us.

"What the Hell happened?" Rick asked.

"They took Glenn." Daryl said, sitting me down against the wall and turning his attention to something else. "And they left this little rat behind!" He yelled and I turned to see the kid who'd called out to the others as Rick and T-Dog pulled Daryl back. I stood up and walked over to him, wiping the tears from my face.

"Why?" I demanded. "Why did they take Glenn?" The kid stayed silent. T-Dog put a hand on my shoulder and I shoved it off, storming back to where Glenn had been carried away. I had let him down, who knew what the Hell they were going to do to him? I just looked at the roadway until I heard T-Dog's voice.

"Sam, come inside." He pleaded. I sighed and followed them back into the department store.

We sat the kid down and I just looked at him for a long time. He was so young, not a day older than Simon, which just made me miss Simon and Jason even more. We all four huddled to decide what to do with him.

"I say we just beat him until he squeals." Daryl snapped.

"I hate to admit it, but I think I agree with Daryl on this one." T-Dog said.

"No." I snapped. They all looked at me. "Has anyone considered that if we talk to him he'll tell us what we need to know?"

"Oh yeah Sam, you talk to him. Now that I think about it, why don't you just seduce him? Use your feminine charm, he'll talk in no time." Daryl growled.

"That's actually not a bad plan." Rick admitted. "If one of us talks to him he'll probably close himself off, but a pretty young girl might just do the trick." They all looked at me for a long time.

"I'm not seducing him. I'll just be nice." I said.

"Sure, whatever you want to call it." Daryl muttered sarcastically. We broke up and I walked over to the kid and offered him a sip from my canteen. He took a few greedy gulps and handed it back to me.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Miguel." He answered smirking at me. "And what can I call you _bella doma_?" I smiled. It'd been a while since I'd taken Spanish in high school, but I knew he'd just called me beautiful.

"Her name isn't important." Daryl barked. "Where's the china man you took?"

"Who?" Miguel asked.

"The boy who had the guns that they dragged to the car." I asked calmly. "Where is he?"

"At our camp. They took him because you took Guillermo's guns."

"Who the Hell-"

"Daryl." I said. I turned back to Miguel. "Who is Guillermo?" I asked.

"He's our leader, you guys took his guns, so he took your man." He said. "Sorry _chica_, but unless you give Guillermo his guns you won't get your _amigo_ back anytime soon." I sighed and turned to Rick, T-Dog and Daryl.

"Well, that's it then-" I started, but Daryl wasn't done.

"You seen an older guy named Merle?" He asked, getting in Miguel's face.

"What kind of a name is Merle? I wouldn't name my dog Merle-" Daryl snarled and walked over to my backpack and threw the bandana at Miguel and Merle's hand came flying out. Miguel screamed as Daryl got in his face.

"That's what happened to the last guy that pissed me off!" Daryl hollered, he looked ready to lunge at Miguel, but I got between them and pushed him back.

"Daryl calm down!" I snapped.

"Calm down? _CALM DOWN?_ How 'bout I handcuff your little boyfriend to a roof and leave him there to die then let's see if you can be calm!" All I saw was red as I stood my ground.

"If you touch one hair on his head-"

"You'll what?" He leaned in close to me. "You'll strip down to your panties and make out with me again?" I felt my face get red as I felt Rick, Miguel, and T-Dog staring at me. "Yeah, let's see how much your little china man likes you after he hears about that." He smirked.

"You son of a BITCH!" I screamed, punching him square in the jaw. He turned back and grabbed me by my cheeks and pulled my face closer to his.

"If we don't find Merle, I'm telling him." He threatened. I smacked his hand away and went to attack him again, but Rick snatched me out of the air as T-Dog pulled Daryl away.

"Walk away." Rick warned him. He set me down and guided me back to where Miguel was as T-Dog shoved Daryl out into the hallway.

"Is that what you want Sam?" Daryl shouted. "You better pray to God we find Merle!" I collapsed onto the desk as Rick went out to talk to Daryl. I felt like such an idiot.

"Your name is Sam?" I turned to see Miguel looking at me. "Is your last name, damn what was it? Harley, Hurley…"

"Harper." I finished.

"Yeah, that's it! Samantha Harper! I knew I recognized you. Your brothers were looking for you." I leapt up and kneeled down in front of him.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yeah, they showed us a picture and asked if we'd seen you. There was a tall older guy and a really skinny younger guy."

"When was this?" I asked.

"No more than three days ago." He said. But when we said we hadn't seen you they just kept walking, said they couldn't stop until they found you." I felt my eyes tear up and hugged Miguel.

"Thank you." I said. "I'll talk to the others and see if we can get you back home to your friends." I stood up and was about to go get Rick when he, T-Dog and Daryl all walked in. The second I saw Daryl I wanted to cave his face in. I thought I could trust him, but I was obviously wrong.  
"So Sam, did he say anything else?" T-Dog asked, trying desperately to change subjects.

"Not really. I think if we take him back they might just trade him for Glenn." I advised.

"It's worth a shot." Rick said.

Miguel led us to their camp, which just looked like an abandoned building. Rick positioned T-Dog on the roof with a sniper so we'd have the upper hand no matter what. We walked up and what looked like a garage door opened up to reveal at least thirty huge men, all of them with guns. I stood on Rick's left, Miguel by my side, gun pointed at the group. A younger man walked to the front of the group and smiled at us.

"Miguel, and…" He looked at Rick. "My guns. Excellent, now if you could just hand those over." I assumed this was Guillermo.

"They're not your guns, they're mine." Rick said.

"Someone drops a bag of guns in the street anyone can walk by and say they're theirs." Guillermo said calmly.

"Look, we have one of your men; you have one of ours, now how about we just trade straight across?" I suggested, trying to keep the peace.

"Sorry, but Miguel ain't worth losing a bag of guns." Guillermo answered.

"C'mon Guillermo, please." Miguel begged.

"Sorry, but I think we have the upper hand here." Guillermo whistled and I saw two men bring a figure to the edge of the roof. They pulled off the hood over his face and I saw Glenn.

"Glenn!" I screamed. He looked down at me, terrified. All I saw was red as I lunged at Guillermo and pressed my gun into his forehead. "Let him go." I demanded, staring him down. I heard his gang's guns all aim at me, and Rick's gun and Daryl's crossbow aim at them.

"I'd love to _chica_, but not without my guns." He said, looking straight into my eyes. I stared at him for a long time before I put my gun down.

"Take me instead."

"Sam, don't be stupid!" Daryl snapped.

"Shut up!" I growled. I turned back to Guillermo. "I have a gun and I know how to use it, that's worth more than ten guys with guns that have no idea what they're doing."

"Sam." Rick warned.

"Sorry, but as sweet as that sounds _chica_ I need those guns. So you come back here and give them to me, or you come back here locked and loaded." Then he walked back into the garage and Glenn disappeared from the rooftop.

We were all silent as we walked back to the department store, we all felt helpless. We were wildly outnumbered, even if we did have the greater firepower. As we were about to walk into the room I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to see Daryl.

I tried to squirm away but he pressed me into the wall. "What the Hell were you doing back there?" He demanded.

"Keeping a promise to my friend that I'd get him back alive." I snapped.

"No, you see, you don't get to do that." I tried to get loose, but he just pushed me harder against the wall. "You don't let me save you and then pull shit like that." He snarled.

"Oh, but you just get to lie to me and hold my mistake over my head for the rest of my life?" I growled. "Let go of me."

"Look Sam, I hate to break it to you, but we're probably not going to win this shootout." He said. "And I'd rather we don't die hating each other's guts."

"Is that your version of an apology?"

"That's the best you're going to get." He admitted. We looked at each other for a long time, neither of us wanting to admit that we'd been wrong. Then out of nowhere Daryl smashed his lips to mine again, then he let go of me, walking into the other room. I raced after him to see Rick and T-Dog standing over the guns. Rick looked at me.

"Sam, what are you best at shooting?" I pulled out my gun.

"You got any Desert Eagles?" I asked. Rick tossed another one to me and two clips; one for this gun and one for my own.

"You guys can't be serious." Miguel said. "You can't win this! Just give him the guns!" I walked over to Miguel and helped him up.

"We've got our own group to think about." I said solemnly. "I'm sorry." He looked terrified and I wondered how the Hell he was in a gang. As we walked back to Guillermo's camp I walked in the back with Miguel. He finally looked at me.

"I don't want everyone to die." He said quietly. I didn't know what to say as we walked into the courtyard and the garage door opened again. Guillermo walked forward.

"I see my guns, but not in the bag where they belong."

"You said either hand them over or come back locked and loaded. We made our choice." Rick said. I made sure to push Miguel back to his group so he wouldn't get caught in the cross fire. We walked into the garage and I noticed Daryl was trying to hide me behind him again, but I stepped next to him, aiming my gun at two tattooed guys aiming at T-Dog. I swallowed nervously.

I just wished I could have told Glenn goodbye.


	8. Love The Way You Lie

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear." –Mark Twain

As we all stood in our standoff, everyone too nervous to take the first shot I saw Miguel, staring at me and shaking his head, begging me to change Rick's mind. But it was too late. I was about to fire when I heard a small voice.

"Filipe? Filipe are you out here?" A larger man next to Guillermo turned and I followed his gaze to see a small elderly woman.

"Not now Abuela." He pleaded. The old woman, Abuela, saw me and walked over, smiling.

"Who is this young lady? Are you Filipe's friend?" She asked. I tucked my guns into the back of my jeans as she slowly looked up at me.

"No, but I'm looking for my friend, he's my age, with black hair-"

"Oh, the Korean _chico._" She took my hand in hers and, not wanting to disobey, I meekly followed, Rick, T-Dog and Daryl behind me. "He's right in here." She said, taking me through some hallways. That's when I realized this wasn't a garage, this was a nursing home. I saw old people and nurses everywhere, then Abuela took me to what looked like a mess hall where Glenn and a few others were standing.

I felt a huge smile break across my face as Abuela smiled at me and let go of my hand. Glenn looked over at me and smiled, running over to me and gripping me in a huge hug. "I knew you guys would come back for me." He whispered.

"Of course." I said. "I promised I wouldn't leave you, ever." I said. We heard Rick clear his throat and blushed, pulling apart. Rick ruffled Glenn's hair and T-Dog gave him a small hug. Daryl just hung back and glared at him. I felt a shiver creep up my spine, had he been hoping that we wouldn't save Glenn? Rick's voice broke me away from my thoughts as he smiled at Glenn.

"We thought you were done for." He admitted.

"So did I, until I saw this place and everyone in it." Glenn said. We all turned to Guillermo.

"So, Guillermo, why are you living out of a nursing home?" Daryl demanded. I looked around at all these people, most of them who looked like they couldn't last a day on their own.

"Uh…" Guillermo started, but he realized he couldn't bullshit us and let out a long sigh. "We take care of the oldies, when everything happened the doctors and nurses just left them here to die. We couldn't just abandon them here. Guys would come by to see how they were doing, but when they saw how bad it was most of them never left."

"So what were you guys doing here in the first place?" T-Dog asked.

"Filipe is a nurse… and I'm just the janitor." He admitted. "These guys can't make it on their own," He explained as he started to walk us to what I assumed to be his room. "We've been trying to store food and guns so that maybe we can get out of here, but most of them can't travel, so it's just a dream."

"We would have killed all of you." I said. Did he not realize how stupid his brave front had been? Everyone would have died if we'd had that shootout. Abuela had saved us all without even realizing it. I turned to Rick. "Do we really need _all_ of the guns?" I asked. He sighed and took the bag off his back, handing half the guns to Guillermo and giving him three boxes of assorted ammo. Guillermo looked at all of us.

"Thank you." He said simply. I smiled at him. Hopefully now they could defend everyone.

But, as usual, we had to come back to reality and leave our new friends to get back to our group. As we were walking out of the courtyard we heard Miguel's voice.

"Sam!" I stopped and turned to him. He ran up to me clutching something in his hands. He ran up to me and smiled. "I almost forgot, your brothers said that if we ever saw you to give you this." He handed me a leather bracelet and I bit my lip.

I had made Simon this for his birthday two years ago. I smiled and hugged Miguel. "Thank you." I whispered.

"Anything for my _bella doma_." He said, smirking. I kissed his cheek and jogged back to the others, waving goodbye as he stood red faced waving. Rick and T-Dog were smiling and laughing at Miguel's face. Daryl looked pissed as usual, and Glenn…was that jealousy I spotted in his eyes? If it was it was gone before I could be sure as we continued to walk back to the truck.

We stayed quiet for almost thirty second before Daryl had to be an asshole, of course. "So Sam, I thought you _weren't_ going to seduce him?" He mocked.

"Shut up." I snapped.

"What?" Glenn asked quietly.

"Daryl." Rick warned.

"What? I'm just sayin' what you all were thinkin'. Jesus."

"Kissing someone on the cheek is not seducing them." I growled. "God, he gave me news about my brothers I thanked him."

"If that's how you thank a stranger I'd love to see how you thank someone you know." He said, looking at me so I knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Did I miss something?" Glenn asked sheepishly.

"No." I said.

"Yes." Daryl said simultaneously. He looked at me with a smirk and I just knew what he was going to say.

So I stopped him by punching him in the gut. He lost his breath for a moment, but then lunged at me and we locked up, ready to beat the shit out of each other. Glenn grabbed me as I saw T-Dog and Rick pull Daryl back.

"Can you two stop fighting for ten damn minutes?" Rick roared. "It's like dealing with children the way you two treat each other!" Daryl and I continued to glare at each other for a few more seconds before I pulled myself away from Glenn and started walking again. Glenn jogged to catch up to me as we continued towards the truck.

"Sam, what happened between you two? I knew that guy had a temper but Jesus." I felt my heart speed up as I thought of Daryl pressing me into the wall, threatening to tell Glenn about when we kissed. I'd be damned if he did. He was just mad because I was happy and he wasn't.

"He's just mad about Merle, that's all." I lied. I was getting worried how easy it was becoming for me to lie to people.

"So why's he taking it out on you?" Glenn prodded. I sighed and ran one of my hands through my hair.

"I don't know. Probably just singled me out as the easiest target."

"Sam…" He said.

"What? I saved you okay? I don't have to justify myself to-" I stopped when I saw the empty railroad tracks.

"What's wrong? Nothing's there." Glenn said.

"Exactly. This is where we left the truck." I said, looking at him. His eyes got huge as we turned to the others. "Guys?" He yelled. "We have a problem."

"Well isn't that just peachy." Rick muttered.

"Who the Hell would take the truck?" T-Dog asked. I looked at Daryl.

"Merle." We both said.

"I knew he was alive." Daryl said, smirking. "That tough son of a bitch."

"Well too bad that idiot jacked our ride." I snapped. "Looks like we're walking."

"Make that running; we have maybe an hour before the sun sets." Rick said. I sighed as we all took off running back to camp.

I was expecting a nice meal when we got back, maybe even a beer, but as we got close to the camp I heard screaming and we all booked it, getting out guns out and ready. Before we even got to the tents we saw Walkers everywhere. I shot as many as I could and tried to hide Glenn the best I could. But as I was turning to shoot a Walker one grabbed my ankle and pulled my feet out from under me. I shot him in the face and was about to get up when I saw a small horde lunging at me.

I screamed and shot as many as I could, making sure that their teeth and nails didn't come anywhere near my skin. But as I kept shooting they kept coming over and the bodies started to bury me as I heard someone scream my name. I tried to shove my way out, but they must have been getting shot and landing more and more of them on me. I felt my stomach lurch from the stench of death as they were crushing me and I could still hear the screaming, but couldn't see anything as I started to suffocate. I felt myself starting to pass out from lack of oxygen and desperately tried to push the bodies off me, but it was useless.

Was this really how I was going to die? Being buried alive by the dead only days away from my brothers? I had gotten cheated. I wanted to go out in a blaze of glory, maybe getting eaten by a thousand Walkers while saving my family or something, but not like this. Every time I tried to take a breath my ribs were pushed even lower.

Then I saw a light. I was pretty sure it was heaven at this point. I tried to lift my hand, but it was pinned down. I just waited as the light got closer and closer, but then I saw Daryl and Glenn's faces unburying me and eventually pulling me out. I felt my stomach roll again but chocked back the vomit as I stared at what was almost my tomb.

"Jesus…" Glenn said. "One second you were right there, the next second we had no idea what happened to you." Glenn went to hug me, but Daryl held him back.

"You bit?" He asked hollowly.

"I don't think so-" Daryl got straight in my face.

"Are you bit or aren't you? It's a yes or no question." He growled.

"No."

"You're a damn liar!" He snapped and shoved his gun in my face. "No one gets pinned under that many Walkers and doesn't get bit."

"What's going on here?" Rick asked, walking over with the rest of the group behind him.

"Sam's been bit." Daryl answered.

"No I haven't you goddam idiot!" I shouted. "I had the sense to kill them before they hit me!"

"Like how you killed that first one if the woods? You have no idea what the Hell you're doing!" He barked, getting back in my face. He had lowered the gun and I tried to grab it, but he threw me to the ground and pointed it right back in my face.

"Daryl, Jesus Christ! We don't know if she's bitten!" Glenn howled; trying to pull the gun away from Daryl. Somehow the trigger was squeezed and the bullet whizzed right by my left ear, leaving it ringing painfully.

"STOP IT!" Rick snapped, ripping the gun from both of them. "Now look, Jacqui will take Sam into a tent, strip her down and make sure she wasn't bitten. If she isn't, Daryl is going to be in some serious shit. If she is…" He looked at me for a long time. "We'll figure out what to do then."

I cradled my still aching ear as Jacqui led me into my tent.

"Alright sweetie, get undressed." I knew she was worried, if I was bitten she didn't want to be infected. I unzipped my jacket, slipping it off my shoulders. I slid down my jeans and tore off my shirt and stood there as Jacqui looked me over. "Alright, now…the rest." I could tell she didn't want to do this as much as I did as I slid off everything else.

"Well?" I asked.

"The good news is that you're not bitten or scratched." She said, handing me clean clothes out of my bag.

"The bad news?"

"I am burning these because they're stinking up the whole camp." She said, smiling while she grabbed my dead body encrusted garments. I changed quickly and walked out with her. I didn't want to miss whatever Rick was going to do to Daryl. It was going to be great. That dumbfuck had almost killed me for no reason at all. I walked out neo the awaiting group, who were all standing in anticipation.

Wait…

Where were Amy and Andrea? As Jacqui assured everyone I hadn't been bitten I saw Andrea hunched over Amy, who was lying dead on the ground. I felt my stomach roll. If we had gotten here earlier, could we have saved her? I looked around and saw how many of us were dead and felt like my heart had been torn out. I hated started to think of these people as family and now they were gone. I thought we'd saved everyone, but there were so many who were dead.

A hand on my shoulder brought me back to my situation. I turned to see Glenn who was smiling sadly. "I knew you hadn't been bitten." He said, hugging me. I looked over his shoulder and saw Daryl and all I wanted to do was rip his throat out.

And that's exactly what I was going to do.

I let go of Glenn and marched over, getting right in his face. "You almost shot me you stupid asshole!" I growled. "I hope you burn in Hell."

"I wish I had let you die in the fucking woods." He snapped. "You ain't worth saving. I should've let you die in the woods, I should've let you die in those fucking corpses you stupid bitch!"

"The stupid bitch who should stop trying to protect your worthless ass because you'll never change! You'll always be a selfish, no good, toothless, cousin rubbing HICK!"

"You want to go there Sam?" He snarled.

"Damn straight! Bring it brother lover! I was wondering why you wanted to find Merle so fucking badly-"

"Well at least I'm not some stupid two faced lying ass whore! Your brothers are probably trying to get their sorry asses away from you!"

"Guys?" Glenn said quietly.

"SHUT UP!" Daryl and I roared. I got back in his face.

"Well at least this little whore knows to never make the mistake of ever trusting you again you selfish bastard!"

"I'm _selfish? _ Are you forgetting who has saved your worthless ass TWICE now girlie?"

"And almost _BLEW MY FACE OFF WITH A SHOTGUN?_ Did you forget that part Mister High Horse?"

"Merle was right about you. You're just a stupid, lying, no good, gutter trash slut!"

"When did he tell you this? While you two were banging a sheep together you white trash loser?" I think Rick said something at that point, but I was so angry that I didn't hear him. Daryl and I were about to go for the throat when a gunshot made us both jump out of our skins.

"I SAID SHUT THE HELL UP!" Rick screamed; lowering the gun he must have fired into the air. "Daryl, go help dispose of the bodies. Sam, go with Glenn to start packing since we can't stay here. If our guns didn't draw enough Walkers, your screaming match sure as Hell did.

"But-"

"I said GO." Rick snapped. I glared at Daryl again as Glenn lead me to our tent to start packing. I was still fuming, but was glad Rick had broken us up. Had we kept going I might have actually ripped out Daryl's throat. As we sat there in silence Glenn finally spoke.

"Sam, why did he keep calling you a liar…and a whore?"

"Because he's an asshole." I said.

"Sam, please, what happened? He's obviously not just mad about losing Merle." I felt my face turn bright red. It would sound better coming from me than Daryl telling him later just to hurt me.

"First of all, nothing happened in the woods, if that's what you're thinking. But when we came back I was swimming and Daryl came down and…" I looked over at Glenn, his adorable brown eyes, his moppy black hair. I was crazy about him and I knew it. And this would only worsen my chances of him caring about me too, but I was done lying to him. "He kissed me, and I kissed him back, I was so confused and…" I shook my head. "But I told him that it was wrong and he got mad at me, saying I had led him on…"

"Sam." I looked over at him; he set his hand gently over mine. "It's okay."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I mean, we're friends, you don't have to hide that kind of stuff from me. I'll make sure I tell him to back off. But for now we need to get out of here." He picked up his bag. "I'm going to go put this in Dale's RV. I simply nodded and watched him walk out the door.

Friends.

We were just friends.

I collapsed back onto the floor of the tent and felt my insides disintegrating. I was one of the only damn girls left in the world and we were still just friends? I wanted to go out and kill someone. What the Hell did I have to do to get him to feel the same way about me? I let out a long sigh and finished packing my things.

As I did I saw Simon's bracelet and touched it softly. I just had him and Jason now. I had to find them and keep them safe. I had let enough people down; I wouldn't add them to the list.

I packed up my things and headed outside to see Rick and Shane in a heated debate over where we should move to. The CDC or a military base a hundred miles away. I sided with Rick simply because Shane was an asshole, but also because there was no way we could make it a hundred miles. Besides, maybe Jason and Simon were there. The group seemed pretty sold on the CDC and we all hopped into our rides. I grabbed the keys from Andrea and started up Black Widow as we rolled off towards the unknown.


	9. The Sound of Forgetting

"If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking". - Buddhist saying

||Glenn||

As we continued on driving I could feel my legs starting to fall asleep. We'd been driving for twenty hours straight and there was no sign of Walkers, food, water, or the CDC. But who I really felt bad for was Sam, she was stuck riding her bike to send messages from car to car and scout ahead, which had me worried sick.

I'd offered to ride with her, but she said that she'd rather have me ride in the Winnebago with Dale and go by herself. I smiled; she reminded me a lot of myself when she did things like that. God, if it weren't for her I would've died three times now. True I had saved her back twice, but now I had to tack on her saving me from Guillermo and his camp. I looked out the window and saw her riding ahead of us by Rick's car getting a message from him.

I can't believe I had thought she was a guy, well, the jacket hadn't helped, but she was so slim and curvy, and no guy would ever wear jeans that skinny and flattering. I sadly remembered her telling me how she and Daryl had kissed. I bet he had been better than me and that's why she liked hanging out with him more. Everyone could feel the sexual tension rolling off them when they fought. I was always expecting them to just stop and make out or something. You know, like in the movies. But Rick was seriously worried that they were going to kill each other and kept them apart as much as he could.

How Daryl could ever say the terrible things to her I didn't know. She was so smart and beautiful and was the kind of person who would always have your back. I mean, she'd risked her own life to save me when we'd first met. There was nothing in it for her, in fact, I was probably more of a burden than anything else, and she'd still saved me. I watched as she nodded at Rick and then killed her accelerator to fall back to us.

"Rick wants to know how Jim is doing." She hollered. Dale looked at me.

"Will you go check on him?" Dale asked. I nodded and stood, walking to the back where Jacqui was sitting with him.

"How is he?" I asked.

"Not good. Every little bump is killing him." Jacqui said grimly.

"Stop the RV." Jim rasped.

"Huh?"

"Tell the others to stop, please." Jim begged, looking at me. Jesus, this was killing me. I hadn't really talked to Jim all that much, but he was the one who'd told me how to get Sam's bike out of the city without too much trouble by teaching me how to hotwire it and ride it back to the mall. If it weren't for him I never would have been able to get it back to her. I nodded at him, it was the least I could do, and stumbled back to the front of the Winnebago.

"Jim wants us to stop." I told Sam. She nodded and sped right back up to tell Rick. After a few minutes of her accelerating and killing the engine we finally came to a stop. Rick and Shane walked into the Winnebago and I jumped out, walking over to Sam.

"How bad is he?" She asked solemnly, hopping off her bike and removing her helmet. Both her and Jim being mechanics, they'd gotten along really well, talking about cars and bikes for hours at a time. I think she almost thought of him as a second father, and now we all knew he was going to die. I really hoped we found her brothers, for her sake. I just don't think she could lose anyone else.

I snuck a glance at her, Jesus she was so pretty. Her light brown hair had fallen around her shoulders, framing her face. Her dark brown eyes were sad, but still shining in the sunset as she looked at the RV. She looked like a goddess of tragedy or something, standing perfectly still, her eyes just locked on the Winnebago and Jim. I couldn't help myself; I took her hand in mine. She looked at me, a bit startled, but I smiled at her.

"It's going to be okay Sam." She smiled sadly at me and squeezed my hand.

"I hope so Glenn." She looked back at the RV. "I really hope so." Finally Rick and Shane walked out with Jim. Sam ran over and I was about to run after her when I felt someone grab me. I spun around to see Daryl glaring at me. I swallowed my nervousness, if Sam could stand up to him so could I. I looked him straight in the face as we had a little Mexican standoff.

"Listen up china man, because I'm only going to say this once. You better take good fucking care of her. Or I'll break every bone in your body and feed you to the Walkers." He growled.

"Don't worry, I'm not like you." I snapped, then turned and walked back to where Sam was. I willed my hands to stop shaking, because I knew Daryl was still looking at me. "What's going on?" I asked, my voice shaking slightly, but Sam didn't catch it. I saw her face and understood why. She looked like how she had when she found her parents, just broken into a thousand little pieces.

"He wants to stay here." She said quietly.

"You mean like we all just hang around-"

"No. He wants us to leave him here." She said, looking at me with those broken eyes again. "He wants to stay here and die." I stared at her for a long time. I could never imagine doing that. I looked over to see Jim leaning against a tree, smiling and talking quietly to Rick. One by one everyone walked over to say goodbye to him. Sam went before me, just wrapping Jim in a gentle hug and saying goodbye. He patted her back and told her to take care of her bike. She nodded and stood, walking over to Jacqui and hugging her. I walked up to Jim and shook his hand; he pulled me in weakly and whispered in my ear.

"Take care of Sam for me, and keep that damn Dixon away from her, please." I pulled back and nodded and went over to Sam. She wrapped me in a huge hug and I hugged her back. I loved having her in my arms, I never felt like she was safe anywhere else. She finally pulled back and started heading for her bike when I stopped her.

"You can't drive like this." I said simply.

"Rick said-"

"I'll talk to Rick." I said simply. She sighed and nodded, knowing that she wouldn't win that argument as she turned back to Jacqui. I ran over to Rick and Shane. "Rick!" He turned to me and I could tell he hadn't slept well in a long time.

"What is it Glenn?" He asked.

"Don't make Sam drive her bike, please. She just can't right now and if we hit a group of Walkers she's completely unprotected on that stupid bike-" Rick just held up his hands and I stopped talking.

"Alright, she can ride with you guys."

"Thank you." I said.

"Don't mention it; just have her put her bike with Daryl's." I bit my lip and walked back over to Sam, who was still with Jacqui.

"Rick says you can just put your bike with Daryl's and ride with us." She nodded and went back to her bike, but there was no way I was leaving her alone with Daryl. I helped her push it over to his Jeep and he glared at us.

"The fuck do you two want?" He growled.

"Rick said to put my bike with yours." Sam said. "Don't worry, I don't like it either."

"Whatever just throw it in the back." He snapped and hopped into his car.

"What an asshole." I muttered.

"You're telling me." Sam said. There was something in her voice, but I couldn't quite place it before she was telling me how to lift her bike into the back of the Jeep without destroying it. After about a minute of grunting and shoving we finally got her bike in the car and shut the back. We started to walk back to the Winnebago when Sam glared at Daryl.

"Thanks for the help you prick."

"Not my bike, not my problem." He snapped. "Now get lost." She flipped him off as we hopped into the RV. I let out a long sigh as she walked to the back and plopped down across from Jacqui on the sofa. As we all drove off my eyes were locked on Jim, who looked the happiest I'd ever seen him. I looked back at Sam, who was comforting Jacqui as we continued towards the CDC.

That night we pulled over to sleep I walked over to Sam, who was just sitting, staring out a window. I offered her a blanket and smiled at her. She took the blanket, wrapping it around herself as I did the same and sat beside her. "Sam, it's okay, he's with his family now." I said.

"I know." She whispered. I looked around, everyone else was fast asleep, but we didn't really need someone to keep watch, the windows and doors were boarded shut.

"You should get some sleep." I said.

"I'm not tired." She promised me.

"Sam, do you want to tell me about Savannah?"

"It's actually not that either." She said, smiling. "All those ghosts are gone now." Then she got this really sad look and pulled the blanket tighter around herself. We both jumped when we saw a bright flash and heard a loud crack, but realized it was thunder and lightning as rain started pouring down the windows. She let out a nervous laugh when she realized we had grabbed each other. "Sorry." She whispered, trying to pull away, but I gently pulled her back. Her face turned bright red as I just held her.

"Sam, it's okay, I won't let anything hurt you." I said. She looked into my eyes, her face turning even redder.

"Glenn." She smiled and hugged me back. "I won't let anything happen to you either."

"And we will find your brothers, I promise Sam." I said, holding her tighter.

"Thank you." She whispered.

"Now will you sleep? Please?" I asked, she smiled and rested her head on my shoulder and closed her eyes, falling asleep in minutes flat. God her body was probably thanking me right about now. How she could go days with no sleep was beyond me. I gently picked her up and carried her over to the empty couch, setting her down gently. I tried to pull back but she wouldn't let go. I smiled, so she wasn't asleep after all. She opened her eyes and smiled at me, patting the spot next to her. I smiled and squeezed in beside her as she threw half of her blanket over me and fell into a deep sleep.

The next day all we did was drive. I was about to go crazy when finally it was there in front of us. Dale pointed out the CDC to me and Andrea, Jacqui, and Sam all ran forward to see it. It was a huge glass building that looked like it was still up and running. We all cheered, well, all of us except Andrea, who was still sad about Amy.

As we pulled up I pulled Sam closer to me, taking her hand in mine as we all approached the giant steel doors. Rick knocked on them.

"Hello? Is anyone in there?" It was silent. Rick tried again. "Hello?"

"No one's here." Andrea said, terrified. Sam gripped my hand and I saw the terror on her face. We were out of food, out of water, and almost out of gas. We'd probably die if we couldn't get in here.

"OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR!" Rick screamed, pounding on it.

"We're all going to die." Andrea whimpered.

"No we're not, let's head to the military base and-"

"We won't make it to the base!" Lori said.

"Well it's worth a damn shot, everyone back in the cars." Shane barked.

"What do we do?" I turned to Sam, who was terrified.

"I don't know." I admitted.

"It moved!" Rick said." We all stopped and looked at him. "The camera moved someone's in there." Rick said again.

"Rick, those cameras are designed to move like that." Sam said sadly.

"It fucking moved!" Rick shouted, obviously not hearing Sam. Shane finally went over and was pulling him away while Rick kept screaming at the camera when finally the door opened. In the blinding light stood a small man holding a shotgun.

"Are any of you bitten?" He asked.

"No." Rick said.

"Then hurry up, once these doors close they do not open back up do you understand me?"

"Get the bags out of the cars!" Shane yelled. Sam and I booked it back to the RV, grabbing as many bags as we could and running into the light. When we were inside and so was everyone else the doors shut and I just hugged Sam.

"We're going to be okay." I said, holding her to me. "It's all going to be okay." We were finally safe. I heard someone clear their throat and we all turned to see the man who had saved us.

"I'm Dr. Jenner, welcome to the CDC." He said with a small smile. He escorted us into an elevator and we went down what felt like stories until the door opened to a long white hallway.

"Are we underground?" Carol asked nervously.

"Yes, why, claustrophobic?" Jenner asked.

"A little." She admitted.

"Try not to think about it." He said simply. "Now the rooms are all messy, so I hope couches are alright, and if you take a shower please go easy on the hot water-"

"Hot water?" I asked in disbelief. I hadn't had a hot shower since all this shit had started and I was pretty sure I wasn't the only one.

"Yes, hot water." Jenner repeated with a huge grin at my joy. I grabbed Sam's hand as I ran off to the first room and opened the bathroom door, sure enough there was a beautiful shower. I grinned from ear to ear until I remembered Sam. I turned around to see her chuckling in the doorway.

"Do you want to go first?" I asked.

"No, go ahead." She insisted.

After our beautiful, beautiful showers Sam and I walked down to see what was for dinner only to be greeted by a spaghetti feast, accompanied by at least a dozen bottles of red wine.

"It's like a dream come true!" I gushed. But I couldn't help but notice Sam was still sad. "What's wrong?" I asked. She snapped out of her daze and smiled weakly at me.

"Nothing, don't worry about it."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, let's just stuff our faces." She teased. I sat down between Sam and T-Dog, and made sure Sam was sitting next to Dale so Daryl wouldn't try anything. We were all laughing and having fun, there was nothing to worry about down here, we were finally safe. I tried to stick to water for dinner, I noticed Sam did too, until Dale insisted we both taste some of the wine.

"Come on guys, live a little!" Dale insisted, filling both our glasses to the top.

"Yeah, I wanna see how red your little face can get." Daryl slurred at me. I looked over at Sam, who just shrugged at me as we both knocked back our wine and everyone cheered. I don't remember a whole lot after that, except that Jenner told us all the other doctors had killed themselves when everything went to Hell and that he was the only one left. Everyone was really quiet so I tried to cheer them up by telling them a joke about a priest and a rabbi, but Sam said it was time for me to go to bed and helped me back to our room.

"Man, so that Jenner guy has been here all by himself?" I asked.

"I guess so. Jesus that'd be rough." She said, closing the door and walking me over to my couch. I just looked at her for a long time; she'd drank a lot less than I did, so she wasn't wasted, maybe just a little buzzed. Her eyes were so pretty; they reminded me of trees or chocolate or hot coca on a warm day or something. And her hair just cascaded down as she propped me against my pillow and smiled.

"Sam." I said.

"Yeah Glenn?" She asked. I had to tell her, I had to tell her that I thought she was beautiful and to forget Daryl because I wanted her to be with me. I wanted to tell her everything so badly, but I couldn't find the words. So I settled for leaping up and kissing her. She was a little surprised when I pulled back, but just blushed and gently kissed me, I grabbed her and kept our lips together as I gently guided her down to the couch. She seemed a little hesitant about that, but just continued kissing me.

And that was the last thing I remembered.

I sat awake in bed trying to figure out of Sam and I had slept together and I'd just blacked out because of the wine. I heard her in the shower, but I was too scared to ask. What if she hated me now? What if I hadn't been good enough and she went back to Daryl? What if-

I didn't have time to finish my thought before she walked out of the bathroom in a tank top and jeans, drying her hair with a towel. She smiled at me.

"Morning Glenn." Well, at least she didn't hate me. I felt my face burning.

"Hey Sam, about last night…did we..?" She blushed too and looked at the ground.

"N-no. You passed out and I tucked you in." She said quietly.

"Oh." I said, slightly disappointed. I didn't want her to think I was some horn dog asshole. "Look, Sam, I'm sorry, I was really drunk and I shouldn't have done it." I looked up at her. Why did she look so sad?

"Right." She said finally. "We…we were both drunk, it was a mistake." She smiled weakly at me. "I'm going to go check on Andrea." She said simply.

Shit.

It was a mistake? I was a mistake to her? God damn it! I was one of the only damn men left on the planet and making out with me had been a _mistake?_I sighed, my head throbbing. I needed some damn coffee, then I'd sort all of this out.

I hoped.


	10. Last Night

"Nothing could be worse than the fear that one had given up too soon, and left one unexpended effort that might have saved the world."-Jane Addams  
~Sam~  
I got to a spot in the hallway where I was pretty sure no one would find me and slid down the wall to the floor. 'I shouldn't have done it'? _'I shouldn't have done it'?!_ I was one of the last damn girls on the planet and he shouldn't have done it?! I let out a long sigh and ran my hands through my hair. I just couldn't believe it. Our kiss had been a mistake to him, and he probably thought I was a whore now. Maybe I should have stayed with Daryl after all. At least he didn't bro-zone me. I sighed again, pressing my face into my hands. No, I knew that he probably wanted to see me ripped apart by a Walker or two now.  
Besides, he's an asshole.  
At that moment I thought about Simon and Jason for some reason. Out there cold and alone while I was in here eating all this incredible food and getting to feel hot water against my skin. I felt so guilty that we were just sitting here while they were out there looking for me. I couldn't just leave them out there. I had to go get them, bring them back to this incredible place, because it felt so alone without them. I touched Simon's bracelet, still wet from my shower and sighed. I was a terrible sister.  
I don't know how long I must have sat there, but it must have been long enough for them to get worried, because the next thing I heard was Jacqui's voice. "Sam honey, you're missing breakfast." I smiled weakly at there.  
"Be there in a second." I said. She immediately sensed something was wrong and sat down next to me.  
"Alright, what is it?" She asked, taking my hand in hers. I pressed my tongue into my cheek, I liked Jacqui, she was a great lady, but the last thing I wanted to do was cause drama. But before I could lie to her, she caught me. "It's about Glenn isn't it?"  
"What makes you think that?"  
"He has the same look on his face as you do." I sighed and Jacqui squeezed my hand. It reminded me so much of my mom that I felt my eyes tear up. But, as usual, I pressed them back and looked at Jacqui.  
"Last night, we were both a little buzzed and we kissed, Glenn passed out, and this morning he told me that it was a mistake and that we shouldn't have done it."  
"You like him, don't you?" I weakly nodded.  
"How did you know?"  
"I see the way you two look at each other, it's beautiful. Trust me, he cares about you too, maybe he's just intimidated." She promised. I chuckled.  
"You sound like my mom."  
"That's because it's true, Glenn's just intimidated."  
"Intimidated?" I asked. "By what?"  
"Daryl has… said some things." She admitted. I leapt to my feet.  
"What kind of things?"  
"Threats mostly, to stay away from you."  
"Dammit." I muttered. "Where is that parasite?!" Jacqui stood.  
"In his room still I think, But Sam-"  
"Tell everyone I'll be right there." I said. I made a beeline for Daryl's room and threw open the door. "DIXON!" He stood in the middle of his room on his boxers. He looked over and scowled at me.  
"Haven't you ever heard of knocking?!" He snapped, striding over to me and slamming the door shut.  
"What the Hell did you say to Glenn?!" I growled getting right in his face.  
"I told him the damn truth. That I'll kill him if he so much as looks at you."  
"What the Hell gives you the right-" Daryl slammed me into the door and got right in my face.  
"What the Hell gives _you_ the right to ditch me for that stupid china man?! I saved your life!"  
"That doesn't mean anything if you ruin it!" I snapped, trying to shove him off me, but he just pressed me harder into the wall, sliding me up so my feet dangled off the ground.  
"I can do whatever the fuck I want girlie. I own you."  
"Get your damn hands off of me you low life! I care about Glenn, and I will _never_ care about you you ugly, redneck, racist, piece of shit! Get that through your thick skull!"  
"You don't get to go off looks anymore, I can protect you, he can't."  
"He also doesn't treat me like some kind of animal he wants to catch just because it keeps eluding him." I snapped.  
"You know that's not why."  
"Really? Then what is it? You just want to bang me? Well listen up you dumb ass; I'm not getting pregnant and making a child come into this hell. So dream on."  
"It's not that either!"  
"So you don't want to sleep with me?"  
"No, yes, fuck!"  
"That's what I thought, besides, I will never want you."  
"Then why did you kiss me back?" He demanded. "We both know that, even if it was just a split second, you _did_ want me. So if you love Glenn so damn much, why did you?" I glared him down.  
"I kissed Glenn too, twice. Our kiss? It didn't mean a goddam thing to me." I lied. I instantly regretted my harsh words when I saw the split second of Daryl's pain. I wanted to take it back. He had already lost the only family he had and now I was abandoning him too.  
No.  
Daryl deserved this. He fought me just as much as I fought him. Besides, maybe I had just imagined his look of pain as he let go of me and I dropped to the floor.  
"Get the fuck out." He warned.  
"Happily." I snapped and I stormed to where we had had dinner the night before. I walked in to see everyone getting up and leaving. I walked over to Jacqui. "What's going on?"  
"Jenner is going to tell us about the virus and the progress that they made." I nodded and walked along with them to the lab. I saw Daryl slither over to the group and wanted to rip his head off. I left Jacqui and walked over to Glenn, who looked surprised but happy to see me.  
"So Andrea said you never came and checked on her." He whispered.  
"I tried to find her, but she'd already left." I lied. But Glenn bought it as Jenner asked VI to bring up something called TS-19. Glenn slowly took my hand, much to my surprise, as we watched the person's brain on the screen. It was shining with thousands of lights that Jenner explained were the synapses in our brain.  
"Everything you are, your likes, your dislikes, your fears, and love. They're all right here." He explained, pointing to the screen. I was taken aback; it was so beautiful that it left all of us speechless as Jenner instructed VI to take the screen to the first event. As Jenner explained how the disease worked we watched at the person on the screen slowly coughed and spasmed. But what was most terrifying was how a giant red streak snaked its way up the brain stem and into the person's brain, shutting off the beautiful blue lights as it went. "It attacks the brain, like meningitis, we don't know if it's fungal, viral, bacterial-"  
"So you don't know anything?" Andrea asked in disbelief.  
"You'll have to excuse her." Jacqui said quietly. "She lost someone two days ago, her little sister." Jenner walked over and put a reassuring hand on Andrea's shoulder.  
"I've lost someone too; I know how hard it is." Then he turned back to the screen. "VI. Skip to the second event."  
"SKIPPING TO SECOND EVENT." VI responded.  
"The resurrections times vary wildly. We've had cases of as little as three minutes, and as long as two days."  
We continued to watch as the red started to pulse and small red dots started to flash. Then the person started moving until what looked like a bullet went through their head. I gripped Glenn's hand as the screen went dark. Jenner looked at us all blankly.  
"Doctor, I hate to bother you with another question." Dale said.  
"But you will." Jenner joked.  
"That clock has been counting down, what happens at zero?" Dale finished. I whipped my head over to the clock which had less than an hour. Jenner looked at Dale blankly.  
"The station powers down."  
"What happens when the station powers down?" I asked. He looked at me for a long time before turning and leaving. "Jenner!" I demanded. But he was gone before he answered. I looked at Glenn, then we all turned to Rick.  
"We should go down and try to find some fuel." He said. "T-Dog, Glenn, Shane, come with me." Glenn gripped my hand before slipping it away to follow the others. As they raced off Jacqui came over to me and put her arm around me.  
"What are we going to do?" I asked, turning to her.  
"I don't know." She admitted quietly. "But I'm going to go pack my things, I doubt we're staying here." She sighed, obviously strained by our constant moving. I knew she was even more reluctant to keep going now that Jim was gone. I squeezed her shoulder.  
"It's going to be alright." I promised. She smiled at me.  
"Your optimism is…cute." She said, then walked off to go pack. I sighed and started off to do the same when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around to see Daryl glaring at me. I bit my lip, we were the only people in here, everyone else had left, and I didn't like it.  
"Get your hands off me." I said, trying to shove it away, but he didn't budge.  
"We didn't finish our little chat."  
"Yes we did, when you told me to get the fuck out." I growled. "Now get your hands off of me."  
"Sam what do you think we're going to do when this place loses power in an hour? We can't get back up the elevator, that's for sure."  
"We'll think of something, we'll leave before then, something."  
"Except I saw Jenner lock the door, no one knows the code but him, and he ain't talking." I felt my stomach hit the floor.  
"We're going to be trapped down here." I whispered. "Jesus Christ, we're going to die."  
"Not if we get that code from Jenner."  
"I don't know where he went."  
"We can figure it out I'm sure." I narrowed my eyes at him.  
"How do I know this isn't bullshit?"  
"Why would I bullshit you about something like this?" He growled. "Now will you come on?" I looked at Daryl for a long time, his animalistic eyes, desperate for me to follow him. I looked at the clock, ticking down to when we'd be trapped down here.  
I thought about Simon and Jason, searching this horrid world for me while I would be buried down here and everyone lost it and eventually killed each other.  
I thought of Glenn, I couldn't be with him if we were dead. I looked back at Daryl.  
"Let's go."


	11. Promises

"The worst way to miss someone is when they are right beside you and yet you know you can never have them." -Unknown

-Daryl-

I led Sam through the whole damn place, but that son of a bitch Jenner was nowhere to be found. I finally stopped and ran my hands through my hair.

"Fuck."

"We can't reason with him if we can't find him." Sam said, she turned really pale and I wanted to tell her it was going to be alright, but I just… I couldn't.

Because we both knew it wasn't going to be.

She let out a long sigh, fighting back tears. "I'm never going to see Simon and Jason again." She whispered as we trudged back to the main computer room where we could hear voices. I thought the same thing about Merle, he would probably be looking for me and I'd never see him again because I'd be trapped down here. I grabbed Sam and pulled her around a corner.

"Look, if your brothers are anything like you they're going to be fine." I promised. She tried to squirm out of my arms, which were on either side of her, pinning her to the wall. "Why can't I just talk to you?" I asked, starting to get really pissed off.

"Because all you've done is make my life miserable." She snapped.

"I also have saved your miserable ass a couple times if you don't remember." I said, stepping even closer to her. "Don't forget that part little missy."

"Get away from me." She growled.

"What, so you can spend our last few days with that little china man of yours? So you can fuck him as we lose the last of our oxygen? I don't think so." I didn't want her to go near that little bastard; I wanted her all for myself, all the time. And if anyone was fucking anyone, it'd be me and her. That I'd make sure of.

"Sam?" Speaking of the little bastard he came in and glared at me. "Get away from her." He said, trying to act tough when we both knew I could probably kill him without much trouble. But I pushed myself off the wall and held my hands up and he pulled her into him and led her into the main room.

I was going to kill him. I swallowed my anger; we needed to get out of here first. I followed behind the two love birds and saw Jenner sitting at a computer, when the Hell did he get there? As soon as I stepped inside to see Rick and him talking the door slammed shut behind me.

"What the fuck?" I said, hurrying back to the others. "What the Hell is going on?" Sam turned to me, no longer able to hold back her tears as she hugged Jacqui

"Jenner's going to kill us all." She whimpered. Jacqui started stroking her hair and turn to me.

"When the clock gets to zero a bomb is set off that will destroy this place, and everyone in it."

"Like Hell it will!" I said. There was no way I was just going to stand here and wait for us all to die. I had to get out of here, I had to get Sam out of here. I grabbed an axe and started pounding on the door, Shane soon running over and helping me.

"That door's not going to open. It's made of reinforced steel." All I saw was red as I ran over and was about to chop his head off.

"You're head ain't!" I screamed, swinging at him. But Sam grabbed my arm as Rick and T-Dog pulled the axe away from me. Jenner just watched the clock with a keen interest as I watched Sam walk over to him.

"Mr. Jenner." She said. "You have to let us out."

"Why? So you can go through that sick, twisted place that this world has become? Face a death filled with agony and pain? Just stay here, your death will be quick with the ones you love, there'll be no pain whatsoever. Just peace."

"Except all my loved ones aren't here." She insisted. "My brothers, the only family I have left, are headed for Savannah right now and I have to stop them. They think that's where I am. If you think that up there is bad then you're dead wrong. In Savannah people are sick, but not with the infection. They'll be killed."

"…I can't help you."

"Please, they're all I have left. I already let my parents die because I couldn't save them, don't make me let them down too. I need to find them."

"For all you know they're already dead."

"But what if they're not? They'll never stop looking for me and they'll be shot on sight. Please Dr. Jenner, I'm begging you." She got on her knees; taking his hands in hers and looking at him with eyes that made me just want to hold her in my arms. He looked at her for a long time.

"I can open the doors here, but once you get upstairs you're on your own."

"Thank you." She whispered, giving him a giant hug.

"Go. Find your family Sam, and don't let them go." He clicked a few keys and the door opened and everyone started running out. I stopped when I heard Jacqui's voice.

"I'm staying here Sam." I turned to see Sam's heart breaking.

"What?"

"I'm not like you. I can't make it out there."

"Jacqui, please." Sam begged.

"Take care of Glenn." Tears started rolling down Sam's face as Glenn took her hand and her hand slipped from Jacqui's as he pulled her up to the elevators. I took one last glance and she jogged over to me. "Listen to me Daryl Dixon, and you listen good. Sam may think she's in love with Glenn, but I know that you can keep her safe."

"So what are you trying to say?" I asked.

"Please Daryl; just keep her safe, for me." She looked at me and gave me a small hug. Jacqui and I were anything but close, but I couldn't say no.

"I will." I promised.

"Now go." She said, pushing me towards the elevators where Sam quickly pulled me in as the doors shut. I looked at her as Glenn gripped her hand like a vice. As the doors opened we all rushed at the glass, trying to break it, but it wasn't budging.

"We're running out of time." Shane said.

"I know! Everyone stand back!" We all went for cover as Rick shot at the glass without leaving so much as a crack.

"Rick!" Carol ran over to him and started whispering, pulling something out of her bag and handing it to him. His eyes got wide as he went over to the window and I saw a grenade in his hands.

"EVERYONE HIDE!" He screamed. I grabbed Sam and took her to the other side of the stairs, hugging her to me and dropping to the ground as the deafening boom filled the hall. I grabbed my side as she looked at me with huge eyes. I wanted to press my lips to hers more than anything else in the world, but Rick's voice cut me off. "MOVE!" She pulled me to my feet as we both took off for the whole in the window. We were almost to the cars, popping off a few walkers as we went when we saw Dale and Andrea coming out of the building. Sam started for them, but I grabbed her.

"GET DOWN!" I screamed to them as the building burst into flames. I used my body to shield Sam again, covering the back of my head as the shrapnel started flying. Finally I looked up to see Andrea and Dale slowly getting up. I grabbed Sam and pulled her into my arms, running to the Jeep and tossing her in the passenger's seat. I ran to the other side and started the car as everyone's engines roared to life and we tore out of there. I looked over at Sam, who couldn't take her eyes off the wreckage as we drove away.

"Jacqui…" She whispered. I knew that she had seen Jacqui and Jim almost as second parents and now she'd lost both of them. I reached over and patted her back.

"She's in a better place." I promised. "They both are."

We drove for a long time before Rick finally had us all pull over in a clearing. We all got out of the cars and circled up. Rick took of his hat and sighed. "So." He said.

"What now?" Shane demanded.

"We go to Savannah." We all looked over at Sam who was glaring at Shane.

"Are you out of your mind little missy?" Shane asked. "You want to go back there? You said it was Hell on Earth."

"That's where my brothers are going to find me." She said simply. "And I am not letting them get killed." Everyone was quiet, we'd all heard the rumors about how bad Savannah was, and Sam's testimony of how it was pretty much the end of the world over there. "If none of you want to go then I'll go by myself." She said finally.

"Sam!" Glenn ran over to her, taking her hands in his. "No."

"I can't leave them too." She said, looking into his eyes.

"You're not going anywhere." I said. "Not without me." She looked at me, a little surprised.

"I don't need your help." Sam snapped, getting in my face.

"I'm not asking! You are not going out there just to get killed on some suicide mission!"

"It's not suicide unless I bring you you loudmouth hick!"

"You won't last thirty seconds without me!"

"NO ONE IS GOING ANYWHERE." Rick roared. "And if you two don't stop fighting I'm going to lock you in the RV until you become friends."

"Oh I'm sure Sam wouldn't have a problem with that." I muttered. She glared at me, but no one else heard as they started discussing her plan.

"They both know how to shoot a gun." She said. "And we need more people who know how to do that."

"It's also two more mouths to feed." Lori said. "And Savannah is a long way.

"Sam, for all we know they're already dead-" Lori started.

"No they're not." She growled. "You thought Rick was dead, and he wasn't." Lori's eyes got huge and I thought she was going to rip Sam's head off.

"That's enough." Shane barked, getting in Sam's face. "Now look, we're not going to risk everyone here so that you can go on a wild goose chase."

"Hey, back off." I snapped, shoving him.

"You want to go Dixon?" He asked.

"Bring it on loser!"

"STOP IT!" Rick shoved Shane and I apart, glaring at us both. "Can everyone stop acting like a child for thirty seconds?" I glared at Shane as Rick continued. "Now look, I know that we're all scared, we don't know what to do and it's frustrating, I understand, but we can't have everyone at each other's throats." He took a deep breath. "Now we're all going to try and get some sleep and come back at this tomorrow with clear heads." Sam looked like she was going to say something, but thought better of it and went off to the RV, Glenn right on her heels as everyone dispersed. I sighed as I got into the Jeep, slipping off my shirt, sliding into the backseat to try and get some sleep.

I woke up to hear someone muttering softly by the bed of the truck. I grabbed my crossbow and got out, sneaking around and shoving it right in the thief's face. But as the sky cleared and the moonlight lit up the road I saw it was Sam. "Fuck." She muttered.

"What the Hell do you think you're doing?"

"There's no way we're going to Savannah, so I'm going to find my brothers myself."

"Like Hell you are." I said, lowering my crossbow and stepping closer to her. "I can't just let you leave."

"Well I guess you're just going to have to make an exception." She said, trying to get her bike. I grabbed her hands and pinned them behind her back and setting down my crossbow. She looked up at me as I pressed her back into the Jeep.

"I'm not going to let you go get killed."

"Well I'm not leaving my brothers." Her eyes darkened as she looked at me. "Look, what do I have to do to get you to let me go?"

"I'm not like that." I growled. She chuckled.

"[i]All[/i] men are like that Daryl. If I slept with you would you let me leave?" I swallowed nervously that the thought of pulling Sam into me, feeling her run her fingers through my hair again…

"No. I'm not letting you go because I'm not going to let you die." I kept her hands behind her back as I drug her over to the Jeep and pulled out some rope, tying her arms behind her.

"Are you fucking serious Daryl?" She hissed as I picked her up over my shoulder and dropped her in the backseat.

"I'm dead serious. You're not going anywhere." I closed the door and locked it, but I couldn't fall asleep as I watched her glaring at me in the rearview mirror. I knew I shouldn't, but I couldn't help myself as I turned back to her. "You would really sleep with me just to go get your brothers?"

"I would do anything for them." She said. "And like I said, I learned that the only currency left is sex, blood, and guns. You don't want to kill me, and I need my gun, so I was left with one option."

"How were you planning on explain that to Glenn?"

"Considering the fact I was ready to leave him without a single goodbye that would probably be the least of his worries." She said.

"Well, when I do fuck you, trust me; I want you to enjoy it."

"As if." She snarled. "I'd probably puke if I saw you naked Dixon." I smirked at her.

"I doubt that Sam." I chuckled. "Besides, we all know that Asians have tiny dicks."

"Racist ass." She muttered.

"The racist ass you were ready to fuck." I said, turning back to her. "Face it Sam, you can't resist me." She kicked the back of my seat, sending me flying forward.

"You're such a dick."

"Whatever you say Sam. But I can't wait to tell your little lover boy that you tried to bail [i]and[/i] offered to fuck me. He's going to be heartbroken."

"You wouldn't."

"Oh I would, and I will."

"He won't believe you."

"But it'll plant the seeds of doubt in his mind. There's no way he'll screw you if he thinks I got there first. It'll be like an ant going into a cave." She kicked the back of my chair again.

"You sick pig." She growled, kicking the back of my seat over and over. I finally crawled back there, tossing her down so she was lying on the seat and slid on top of her.

"Now look Sam. I know you don't like me, but believe it or not, I'm saving your life here. If you had left you wouldn't have made it through the night."

"I would have made it all the way to Savannah and my brothers-" I slammed one of my hands over her mouth and sat up.

"I wasn't done Harper. Now as I count it, that's three times now that I've saved you. So I own you three times over."

"Get off of me!" She snapped through my fingers and trying to buck me off of her, but I didn't budge.

"Will you shut your mouth?!" I growled. "Someone's going to hear you!"

"GET OFF ME!" She screamed, trying to get me off of her. I just pressed my hand harder to her mouth and she let out a muffled scream.

"Shut up! Do you want to draw every walker for miles?!"

"DIXON!" I looked over to see a flashlight blinding me. I pulled up one of my hands to try to avoid being blinded as the flashlight fell and I saw Rick glaring at me, Andrea and Shane right behind him.

"Fuck." I muttered. With Sam bucking like a horse and me not wearing a shirt and the screaming it probably looked like…

Fuck.

Shane came over and pulled me out of the RV, throwing me to the ground as Rick helped Sam out. "You don't understand, she was trying to run and I was just making sure she stayed here!" I tried, but the cold glared I was getting let me know no one believed me. Rick quickly untied Sam as Dale, Lori, and Glenn walked over and Glenn immediately latched onto Sam. Rick handed Shane the rope as he tied my hands behind me back.

"What's going on?" Lori asked.

"Daryl tried to rape Sam." Rick answered coldly.

"No I didn't!" I insisted. I looked over at her. "Sam tell them! Tell them you tried to run!" She looked at me for a long time, but Rick and Shane weren't listening.

"So I say we just dump his ass in the woods and let the Walkers have him." Shane said.

"Sounds like a good idea to me." Rick said grimly. "I can't have someone like that around us." They started walking me off and I looked back at Sam.

"Sam!" I pleaded. She wasn't going to let me die, was she?

"STOP!" She said finally. Rick and Shane turned around. She pulled herself out of Glenn's arms and looked at Rick. "I did try to leave."

"What…?" Glenn looked like he was going to cry. "Sam…" She didn't look at him.

"I can't leave my brothers out there. Rick, you know what it's like not knowing where your family is. So, I tried to leave and Daryl stopped me. I still tried to leave so he tied me up and locked me in the Jeep. He was just keeping me here."

"Samantha, if you're lying to protect this bastard-" Shane started.

"I'm not lying." She snapped. "Let Daryl go." Rick quickly untied me as Glenn just stared at Sam. "Glenn…" She said, trying to walk towards him. "I'm sorry." But he just glared at her and walked back into the RV. Dale looked between the two of them and walked over to Sam, giving her a small hug before going back to the RV, Lori and Andrea following as Shane, Rick and I walked over to her.

"Well, since you're a flight risk," Shane said, tying her arms behind her back, "you'll be staying in the truck with me." She just looked at the ground with dead eyes.

"Shane, she doesn't have to stay here." Rick said.

"Like hell she doesn't." Shane growled, they started having a hushed argument as Sam looked up at me.

"One down, two to go." She whispered.


	12. Sunshine (Adagio in D Minor)

"I call the one I love/ the one I love is not listening/ the one I love does not hear/ the one I love does not answer." –Robert Desnos _"The Voice"_

~Sam~

I sat in the back of Shane's truck feeling like a prisoner of war or some kind of animal as the others whispered outside about what to do with me. I was a flight risk now, and even though Rick wanted to let me go Shane wasn't willing to lose someone who could shoot. It looked like a pretty heated debate, but all I could think about was Simon and Jason, cold and alone while I just sat here. I would never forgive Daryl for this as long as I lived. If he had just let me leave I wouldn't be stuck here like some kind of animal. I looked out the window to see Glenn looking at me. I hadn't meant to hurt him, I knew that I was probably the only person he saw left as family, but he should have understood. He should have offered to come with me! He should have…

I sighed. Glenn, just like Daryl, and me deep down, knew there was no way I could have made it to Savannah on my own. How I'd made it to Macon was a miracle in itself. I couldn't blame him for being upset with me, I just hoped that somehow he would eventually understand. I closed my eyes as I tried to hear some of the conversation going on outside.

"Look, we aren't like the military, if Sam wants to leave she should be allowed to leave. Besides, what good is she to us if she hates us for treating her like some kind of animal?" Rick, always the voice of reason.  
"I don't know if you've looked around recently Rick, but we have maybe five people who know how to shoot a gun without her, only three of which are actually any good. And she's a scout, she goes ahead of us on her bike and finds clear paths. We need her here." Shane barked.

"She's not a slave!" Rick shot back. "We're not going to keep her tied up and locked in your truck because you want another person who knows how to shoot a gun." It was quiet for a while before Shane spoke again.

"She didn't even tell you she was leaving, did she Glenn? The one person who's been with her almost this whole time."

That bastard.

"No." Glenn said quietly.

"Exactly, she's obviously so obsessed with finding her brothers, losing Jacqui and Jim, she went a little over the edge. If she really wanted to leave she would have come to you and me and asked to go. We are not going to give up one of our best shots because she freaked out and tried to bail. We keep her tied up until she cools down."

"Shane." Rick sighed. "Alright. But the second she knows that she needs to stay here we untie her."

"Deal."

"Now, do we want to go to Savannah?" Everyone was quiet and I could have kicked myself for being the one to tell them had bad it was there. There was no way they were ever going to go for it, especially not with Carl and Sophia.

"Well, what do we have to find there? Nothing except for Sam's brothers. Nothing but death and murder." Shane said. "And we have two kids to think about too, do we want to put them at risk like that?"

"I agree with Shane." Lori said. "I'm not sending Carl anywhere near Savannah." I sighed.

"Now hold up here." Daryl? "This aren't just two people that we're looking for, these are Sam's brothers, the only family she has left. Rick, imagine if you were in a group and the leader said you couldn't go find Lori and Carl, I feel like you'd try and bolt too."

"Dixon, no one was asking you. Besides, we all know why you want to make Sam happy." I wanted to beat Shane's head in more than anything else on the planet. Daryl was keeping me alive, I hated him for it, but he still was doing it none the less.

"Shut your mouth Shane!" Daryl snapped, I imagine they lunged at each other again because I heard a small scuffle followed by Rick's voice.

"That's enough!"

"Rick." Dale said. "Maybe Sam can take a small group for a few days towards Savannah while we camp out here. We give them, what, three days? That gives them time to get to Savannah, find her brothers-"

"And lead those cartel bastards right to us!" Shane roared. "She'll get us all killed!"

"For all we know her brothers aren't even _in_ Savannah yet." T-Dog said. "I can take her and Glenn, we'll scout the roads and see if we can find them, if not, we gave it a shot. She'll be happy and we all can move on."

"Except the last time we split up half of our group was killed and it was in a much safer place than this." Shane argued.

"Shane's right." Andrea said. "We can't split up."

"I'll take her." Glenn said. "She and I can both just go on her bike and race over there. That way we're not splitting up and we can get supplies too."

"There's no way in hell I'm sending her off with white rice over here. I'll go." Daryl growled.

"The group needs you." Glenn interrupted. "You know how to hunt and how to shoot, I don't. You're much more useful to keep around here."

"You're useful too Glenn." Andrea promised.

"Not when there's a giant horde of Walkers coming at us. I'm a scavenger, I can get in and out of places with no detection. If Sam wants to get in and out of Savannah alive she's going to need me. You can go in there, guns blazing, but you'll just get mowed down by the cartels running the city." Everyone was quiet for a long time.

"I think we should just go to fort Benning." Shane said. "We keep everyone together, no one gets lost or killed. If you two end of getting stuck there we can't go get you."

"I know." Glenn said. "And I'm willing to risk that. Like Dale said, give us three days. We can get down there, find her brothers, and get out."

"Glenn, this is suicide. Especially if it's as bad as Sam said." Andrea whispered.

"We'll have to take back roads, but we can be safe. She and I survived before we met you guys by doing almost the exact same thing. We're a good team together. And I…" He got quiet for a moment. "I'm not going to let her go by herself and get killed." Everyone was quiet for what seemed like an eternity until finally Rick spoke.

"You have three days, then we leave."

"Thank you." Glenn said.

"Don't thank me until you both get back alive." He muttered. I heard someone walk over to the truck and opened my eyes, pretending I hadn't been listening. Shane pulled me out and I almost fell on the ground, but he pulled me to my feet and untied my hands. I winced, my hand immediately shooting to one of the rope burns.

"Sam." I looked over at the group as they explained to me what I had heard. I just nodded, pretending this was new information.

"We'll leave first thing tomorrow." I said, nodding at Glenn. "That way we have all day to find somewhere to plan our way into the city." The group sort of dispersed after that. I just swallowed nervously. I had wanted to go by myself to make sure no one else got hurt, but it seemed now like that was out of the question.

I was a flight risk.

Daryl's voice made me jump as he walked over to me. "You better come back." He growled. I couldn't help but smirk at him.

"Why? You keep saying you should have never saved my life."

"I didn't mean it." He said.

"Why not?"

"Because…. damn it Sam, you know why."

"Because you can't stand to see Glenn and I be happy?" I growled, getting in his face.

"Because I can't watch you get killed." I was a little taken aback at the look in his eyes. "Not unless I die first."

"Daryl…" I wanted to say something else, but Glenn called me into the RV to help him plan our route.

"Go." He said quietly. I was stunned, for a moment he was the Daryl I had met in the woods again. Before he became an asshole. I wanted to give him a small hug, let him know that I'd be okay, but he had already started wandering off.

The next morning we all woke up at the crack of dawn, unloaded my bike, and packed up what few supplied we could spare. As Glenn was saying goodbye to Andrea and Dale Rick walked over to me. "You be careful out there." He said.

"I will. And… thank you. For letting us go."

"It was Glenn that convinced me." He admitted. "Take care of him Sam." I smiled.

"Will do." Finally after everyone telling us to stay safe I hopped on B.W. and Glenn slipped on behind me, grabbing my waist as I started my bike and we took off. To say I was terrified to go back to Savannah would be the understatement of the century. It was a five hour drive on the interstate, but with all the back roads and stopping for lunch it took almost all day before we could see the smoke staining the blood red sky as the sun set.

"Is that…?"

"Yeah." I said as we pulled in to an abandoned convenience store just outside the city. "Hell on earth, Savannah, Georgia." I took my machete and handed it to Glenn as I aimed my gun in front of me as I stepped inside the store. I quickly took my machete back and killed two Walkers that were moaning and carrying on by the candy. I pulled B.W. inside as Glenn locked the chain link gate in front of the store and locked both the doors. Then I helped him push one of the racks in front of it, just in case. As I checked to make sure there were no spare Walkers or a back door I heard Glenn chuckle. "What?"

"Nothing, it's just… this is exactly like the first night I met you." I walked over and sat down next to him.

"Yeah." I said, smiling slightly. "God, that feels like it was years ago."

"I know." He said quietly. "Way back before that damn Dixon guy showed up." I looked over at Glenn, who was blushing and looking at the ground.

"What?" He looked up at me.

"Before Daryl took you away from me." He whispered, scooting closer to me.

"Glenn I…" I turned bright red. "I don't know what to say."

"Sam, I'm glad I kissed you, in the CDC." My eyes snapped back to his.

"I thought you said you shouldn't have done it?"

"I thought you said it was a mistake?"

"Because you said you shouldn't have done it." I whispered. "But… I'm glad you kissed me too."

"Sam…" He whispered. We started to lean towards each other and I thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest. Glenn wasn't drunk this time, we weren't about to split up and probably die, he was going to kiss me because he wanted to, because he really _wanted_ to. I felt my head explode like the fourth of July as our lips finally met.

I slipped my arms around his neck and started to run my hands through his hair as he slowly laid me on the ground, leaning over me. I thought my heart was going to explode as he started to slip off my shirt, but a low growl stopped us both.

I shot up, grabbing my gun and sneaking over to the door, signaling for Glenn to stay quiet. I slowly opened the blinds of the store to see about fifteen men standing outside the store. I had to cover my mouth to keep from screaming, it was the same people who ruled over the city, the cartels. They must have been on a scouting mission. One of them grabbed the gate of the fence and shook it violently and I started shaking. I might be able to take out a few of them, but not fifteen, and Glenn…

I felt him press himself into my back to look out the window, and when he saw how much trouble we were in he got pale. He gripped his shoulder and I looked back only for him to press his lips to mine desperately. We both knew that if those guys got in we were done for.

"We have to hide." He whispered. I nodded as we stayed low to the ground, rushing as fast as we could to the back of the store where he pulled open a small closet. I shouldn't have brought him; if I would have gone by myself then Glenn wouldn't be in this mess. We both squeezed inside and got on the ground as the gate ripped open and we could hear the doors being shoved open. I leaned back against the wall only to feel it give way. Glenn grabbed me as we both looked at what seemed to be a tunnel.

What the fuck?

Glenn didn't even give me a chance to argue before he took my knife and dropped down. He looked both ways and signaled for me to come down. I was about to sneak inside when the front door flew open. I felt my heart racing as I looked at Glenn one last time, he knew what I was going to do, what I _had_ to do to protect him. His begged me not to, to risk both of us and come down there with him but I just shook my head and shut the small door. I wasn't going to let them find him, even if it meant sacrificing myself. I listened as a pair of footsteps came over and the door was ripped open.

"Well look what we have here." A man no older then twenty-three said. "_Hola mamacita._" He roughly pulled me to my feet and smiled at the others. "Hey Isaac, looks like we don't need your sister anymore!"

"Shut your mouth you sick fuck." A young kid with glasses said. He was probably a year or two older than me and had almost black brown eyes that made me shiver.

"Oh I get first dibs before Pedro ruins her too badly." One old looking man with a long scar said, smiling so I could see his crooked, yellow teeth. I fought back tears as the young one with the glasses, Isaac, pulled my gun out of the front of my jeans.

"Aww, don't cry _belleza_." He cooed, making me look up at him by gently tilting up my chin. "I'm going to take good care of you."

"Aww quit wooing her Isaac; you can save your foreplay for tonight." The one who grabbed me said.

"Well I plan on it since she's mine now." He said, pulling me out of my captor's hands and into his. The guy who grabbed me glared at him.

"You think just because you're Enrique's son-" His sentence was cut short by a bullet going through his face, splattering Isaac and I with his blood. Isaac's eyes got huge as he took my gun and crouched down.

"Get behind me." He said. Being defenseless, I obeyed as the other men were quickly mowed down by what sounded like machine gun fire. I was shocked at how fifteen men slowly started to drop as they were peppered with bullets. "Where the fuck are they coming from?!" Isaac screamed as one of the last of his men was shot in the head. He started shaking as two figures wearing ski masks walked into the store and one aimed their gun at him.

"Drop it." The figure, who I was guessing was a man, growled. Isaac swallowed nervously and obeyed, dropping my gun and sliding it to the man's feet. The man ushered the other figure, who was ghostly thin, over. "Well look who we caught. Enrique's son."

"My father will destroy you." Isaac hissed.

"Now if we trade you for some guns and he finally tells me where my sister is."

"So this is it, you two are the ghosts?" Isaac snapped. "Two fucking guys?"

"Two fucking guys that just took out all your bodyguards." The thin one said.

"Yeah, what is the leader of Savannah's son doing out on a scavenging trip?"

"I don't have to tell you shit!" He snarled. The tall man pressed his gun to Isaac's forehead.

"Who's that behind you?" He asked.

"No one." Isaac answered. "She was hiding in here when we came in."

"A woman? Well it's a good thing we kept you from getting your filthy hands on her. Come on out sweetheart." I looked out from behind Isaac and the man went rigid. I slowly stood as the two men just stared at me.

"Sam?" The first man asked.

"How do you know my name?" I asked. The man pulled off his mask and I gasped.

Jason…

"You're alive." He whispered. The other man pulled off his mask and I saw that it was Simon. I felt tears run down my face.

"Sam!" Simon ran over, wrapping me in a huge hug and kicking Isaac square in the face as he spun me around. "We thought that the cartels had you!"

"No, I escaped a few weeks ago." I said. "I went home trying to find you and…" I started crying and I hugged Simon to me. "I am never leaving you guys ever again." I whispered, clinging him to me. Jason, who'd been tying us Isaac, pulled me into a tight squeeze.

"Sam I'm so sorry, I should have gone with you, I should have-"

"SAM?!" We all looked back at the closet where Glenn popped out and ran over to me. "Oh God, I heard the guns and I thought you were dead." He whispered. He pulled back and looked at the two guys standing in front of him and Isaac, lying on the ground. "So… How are we going to explain this to Rick?"


End file.
